


Slytherin's Heir and the Goblet of Fire

by CrashDevil (cjdevlin19)



Series: Slytherin's Heir series [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Pretty French Boys, Snogging, poor communication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2019-05-21 15:18:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 52,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14917821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjdevlin19/pseuds/CrashDevil
Summary: Calidara Malfoy is the antithesis of 'Malfoy'. She hates opulence, doesn't let house elves pamper her, and hasn't touched the Firebolt her aunt and uncle bought her. She doesn't like media attention and hates spending money. And she has absolutely no problem with Muggles. But her old friends seem to think she's fallen to the Dark side since she moved into the Mansion and there's not much she can do about that.~~~~"Shut up, Callie.""Eat dirt, Draco." She responded, before turning to look out the window."Weasleys don't need your help." Fred's voice called from down the corridor.Callie sighed, her mood about going back to Hogwarts thoroughly dashed. If there was anyone she genuinely didn't want mad at her, it was Fred. Fred was the first friend she'd actually made at Hogwarts, him and his twin brother, George. He thought she was brilliant, and said she had pretty brown eyes, and taught her about Quidditch and didn't treat her poorly for being in Slytherin House while they were in Gryffindor, or the fact that he was two years older than her.But that seemed to have changed. He didn't seem to think she was brilliant, anymore. He didn't seem to like her much, at all.





	1. The World Cup

Melanie Malfoy had only met one person who she liked to hear call her that. She wanted to be called 'Calidara' because that's the name her adoptive parents gave her when she was young. Her aunt and uncle refused to acknowledge that, calling her 'Melanie', but neither of them were the one she liked to hear it from. That one was Sirius Black, former friend of her mother, convicted murderer and godfather of her friend Harry Potter. Calidara spent her summer at her family's mansion in Wiltshire, England, but her heart was still in London at her adoptive parents' townhouse. 

Her Aunt Narcissa seemed determined to curry favor with Calidara by buying her gifts like a brand new Firebolt broomstick and taking her to shows. Lucius was attempting to win her over by telling her all about his sister, Miranda, Calidara's mother. She didn't believe a word out of Lucius' mouth because she knew that he'd been part of her parents' deaths and he was the reason her mother was in the wizard prison, Azkaban.

She kept to herself all of July and most of August and she was perfectly happy that way. She finished her summer homework and started to explore the grounds. She did it on foot, not daring to use her fail-safe, which was the fact that she was an Animagus, able to change form into a Capuchin Monkey. She was saving that for a time when she might need to get away from her Uncle Lucius.

Throughout the summer, the Malfoys had mentioned repeatedly that they had amazing tickets for the Quidditch World Cup. Callie, who was raised as a non-magic person, had never been to a professional Quidditch game and she was excited to see one. It was the only thing she was excited to do with the Malfoys. They arrived by portkey and a man in a kilt and a poncho, who seemed extremely afraid of Lucius, sent them toward a small cottage. A sea of tents could be seen in the field behind the cottage. Callie smiled at the man in front of the cottage and told him that they were the Malfoys. It gave her a little twinge of happiness that the Muggle gave no recognition of the name. He had to consult his list. He sent them to a plot by the woods. Lucius didn't care that they weren't supposed to use magic at the Muggle campground, he flicked his wand and they had a large and, like everything in the Malfoys world, lavish tent.

They dropped their bags into their rooms of the tent and started toward the stadium, Narcissa running her fingers through Callie's white-blond hair. "I think this new dress really flatters your form, Melanie."

Callie's dress was a long-cut, long-sleeved dress of purple silk. The Malfoys wouldn't let her continue dyeing her hair purple, so they dressed her in the color instead. The dress fit like a dream, but she was still uncomfortable in it. It was too expensive, too much, like everything with the Malfoys.

Their tickets were checked at the stadium, top box, best seats. Callie followed behind her cousin, Draco, up the deep purple-draped stairs to the top box. When they walked into the box, her eyes fell on the backs of eleven familiar heads. Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, was standing next to a man in Bulgaria colors. "Ah, here's Lucius."

Her friends, Percy and Arthur Weasley, and two men with red hair who must have Bill and Charlie Weasley turned to look at the new arrivals and Callie suddenly felt very out of place in her purple dress. As Lucius greeted Fudge and introduced the Minister to Narcissa, Draco and his 'niece, Melanie', Callie took a seat behind the Weasley twins. "It's Calidara, actually, Minister Fudge, but that doesn't matter much to my uncle."

"You seem to have taken to manor life well." Fred grumbled from the seat in front of her.

Callie looked down at her dress. "My aunt made me wear this. Didn't think we'd see anybody I know."

"Well, you look regal." Fred spat. 

Callie looked down at her purple-covered lap. Fred Weasley had obviously gotten more unhappy with her over the summer for pushing all of her friends away after her adoptive parents died. One of the older Weasley brothers, the one with the longer hair and a fang earring in his ear, turned to Percy and whispered just quiet enough that Callie could barely hear, "That's the girl, huh? I can see it."

 

There was a tense moment between Lucius and Arthur, but Callie ignored it. She was trying to determine what she'd done to make Fred so sour on her. She'd been very honest about why she wasn't actively pursuing friendships with anyone. At least, she thought she had.

The mascots were amazing. The veela from Bulgaria were beautiful and their skin shined like moonlight and when they danced, they made the men in the audience want to literally throw themselves at them. Harry and Ron had both stood and moved like they were going to jump out of the box, but the older men and Draco had all put their fingers in their ears. Ireland's leprechauns threw gold across the sky. It was beautiful. The game was fairly amazing. 

Bulgaria was down 10-170 when Viktor Krum caught the Snitch, which ended the game, but Ireland won, handily. Fred and George moved to retrieve their gambling winnings from the announcer, and Ministry head, Ludo Bagman. Callie gave a look to the twins. She wanted to say something to them, but she didn't, sliding across the seats and heading down to the campground. She fell asleep in her room of the tent to thoughts of Fred Weasley. She would've given anything to make him understand that she'd pulled away for his safety, for his twin brother's safety, for Harry Potter's safety.

She was shaken awake by her aunt, it must've about midnight, and told to put on a coat and go out to the woodline. Draco was already there, leaning against a tree and watching as a group of wizards in hoods and masks stomped across the campgrounds with their wands pointed straight in the air. He looked completely relaxed. As she watched the masked wizards, she recognized them. Not the individual wizards, but the group. They were Death Eaters. They were her father's followers, and they had four people writhing high above them in the sky. Two of the bodies were rather small.

"Why do you look so worried? You're a pure-blood." Draco drawled. 

"I'm not worried for  _me_ , you jerk. I'm worried for them." She said, pointing up at the four people. "It's  _called_  empathy, you maniac."

"Look at them, they're just Muggles."

"They're people! Bloody hell, why am I talkin' to you about this? Bet you'd be just happy as all get out to go join that march."

"Maybe, but Mother and Father told me just to watch." 

A familiar voice caught her attention and then a wand lit up. "Tripped over a tree root." Ron Weasley said, getting up angrily.

"Well, with feet that size, hard not to." Draco said, as Callie's eyes fell over Harry, Hermione and Ron.

"Go fuck yourself, Malfoy."

"Language, Weasley. Hadn't you better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't want  _her_  spotted, would you?" Draco responded, nodding at Hermione.

"That's enough, Draco." Callie responded.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked, defiantly.

"Granger, they're after  _Muggles_. D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around... they're moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh."

"Hermione's a witch." Harry snarled. 

"Have it your own way. If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."

"You watch your mouth!" Ron and Callie shouted. 

"I suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to- trying to rescue the Muggles?"

"Where're  _your_  parents? Out there wearing masks, are they?" Harry spat, his temper rising. Callie had been afraid to ask that. 

"Well... if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?" Draco said, smirking.

"Come on. Let's go." Hermione urged. "Let's go."

"They aren't, are they?" Callie asked as the trio rushed off into the woods. "Your parents are out there torturing that Muggle family."

"I wouldn't tell you, either, blood traitor. Father and Mother seem to think we need you, but I know that you're irredeemable. You're never going to be what they want you to be. Those Muggles you lived with, they poisoned you. You could have been one of us, but you turned out just like Aunt Miranda."

Callie's wand was at Draco's throat within seconds. "You don't talk about her... unless you want to find out what the Crucio curse feels like."

"You wouldn't. That's an Unforgivable-"

"I would gladly take a cell next to my mother in Azkaban if I was able to torture the smug bullshit out of you." The contempt rolling off of her was palpable. "Or maybe the Killing Curse, my father's favorite. Get rid of you, once and for all." 

Draco was shaking and Callie felt a strange combination of pride at terrifying him and disgust at his reaction. "You're a coward. The fact that you think you're better than  _anyone_  is beyond me." She pulled her wand away and shook her head, scowling. "I would rather be like my mother than your father,  _any_  day."

"I'm going to tell Father you-"

"You're not going to tell that man anything, because you know that it won't make any difference. He  _needs_  me, said so yourself. So he won't touch a hair on my head."

Draco scowled deeply as something vast green and glittering erupted from the top of the trees and a Dark Mark painted the sky, looking like it was made of emerald stars. His eyes widened just as hers did. "We need to get back to the tent." said Draco, anxiously.

"Coward." She repeated, but she followed him back to their tent. There was no sign of problems in their tent and Narcissa and Lucius were still gone. "Who could've done that?"

"What d'you mean?"

"You know what I mean, you relentless git! The Dark Mark."

"You-Know-Who and his followers." Draco said, flopping onto a couch. "Probably wasn't him, though. Probably one of his followers who stayed out of Azkaban, didn't like the show with the Muggles."

"I'm... not so sure about that." Callie said, walking into her room. She heard her aunt and uncle arrive about 10 minutes later, but what she didn't hear was Draco telling his parents that she'd threatened him, because just as she'd accused, he was a coward.


	2. Back to School

The Malfoy family was in no hurry to leave the next morning, like the other wizarding families, though there was an extra bit of paleness to their faces as they allowed Calidara to break down the tent by hand, not wanting to use magic. They moved languidly through the campsite, then took a Portkey home. Draco kept glaring at her, but didn't say anything.

The next week was filled with nasty comments from Narcissa about the Ministry's lack of security at the World Cup and nasty comments from Lucius about the Muggles. It was filled with cold looks from Draco and Callie counting down the minutes until she was on the Hogwarts Express back to school. The day before the first day of school, Lucius walked into the dining room, smirking. "Fudge just told me that they're re-instituting the Triwizard Tournament."

Callie was always wary of asking questions, not wanting the contemptuous glare from Draco or the look of pity from Narcissa, but this seemed like something she should know about. "What's the Triwizard Tournament?"

Exactly as expected, Narcissa gave her a look that said, 'The poor child doesn't know.' and Draco rolled his eyes so powerfully that Callie thought his eyes might pop out. "The Triwizard Tournament is a collaboration between the three main schools of magic in Europe. Durmstrang, Beauxbatons and Hogwarts all come together in a contest. A champion is chosen from each school and they participate in three challenges. Whoever wins-" Narcissa began.

"Gets a lot of gold and their name in the books for the rest of their lives." Draco finished.

"And, what, it wasn't around before this year?" Callie asked.

"Every five years before 1792. A cockatrice being used for one of the challenges went on a rampage, killed dozens, injured more. They canceled it after that, but Fudge and the Ministry have apparently revived it this year. Guess they feel like they need a 'win'."

"Oh, the publicity will be grand if they pull this off." Callie said, picking up her plate to take it to the kitchen. She'd made a show over the summer of not letting their house elf do for her what she could do herself. Lucius hated it.

"They'll need dress robes, Lucius. A grand dress for Melanie and something classy and black for Draco." 

"Not necessary!" Callie urged as she dipped into the kitchen. The elf always looked so surprised to see her in the kitchen, or the laundry. "Hello, Bo."

"Hello, miss."

"Need any help in here?"

The elf looked at her with wide eyes, like he did every time she offered to help with anything. "Meaning no disrespect, but you must have other things more importants than this." 

"Not really, but it's okay if you don't want me to."

"Thanking you anyway, miss."

~~

Getting on the Hogwarts Express was a beautiful blessing to her, getting to be away from her aunt and uncle and distance herself from her cousin again. She was excited to be able to see good people, people who hadn't ever been Death Eaters or pure-blood supremacists. She was excited to be able to spend her weekends in the Forbidden Forest, climbing trees as a monkey, and she was even excited to resume her Occlumency lessons with her Head of House, Severus Snape.

Callie got a compartment to herself, rolling her eyes as she heard Draco taunting Ron, Harry and Hermione about the Tournament, saying he'd known about it for  _ages_ and not giving them any information about the actual event except to say that Ron's father must not know anything if the trio didn't know anything. As he walked away from them, Callie called out, "Them not knowing means the Weasleys are better at keeping a secret than Cornelius Fudge, and even he kept it secret from Lucius 'til yesterday."

"Shut up,  _Callie_."

"Eat dirt,  _Draco_." She responded, before turning to look out the window.

"Weasleys don't need your help." Fred's voice called from down the corridor. 

Callie sighed, her mood about going back to Hogwarts thoroughly dashed. If there was anyone she genuinely didn't want mad at her, it was Fred. Fred was the first friend she'd actually made at Hogwarts, him and his twin brother, George. Callie had developed a crush on him early her first year, completely infatuated with his humor and Quidditch skills and the fact that he'd never held it against her that she was the daughter of the most famous Dark Wizard of the past fifty years. He thought she was brilliant, and said she had pretty brown eyes, and taught her about Quidditch and didn't treat her poorly for being in Slytherin House while they were in Gryffindor, or the fact that he was two years older than her. 

But that seemed to have changed. He didn't seem to think she was brilliant, anymore. He didn't seem to like her much, at all. That hurt, even as she came to the conclusion that it was probably the safest thing for him, if he wasn't friendly with her. She looked out the window as rain started pelting the glass. The clouds must've taken on her mood.

She caught a ride in a carriage with a handful of Ravenclaw students, examining the skeletal winged horse pulling it instead of engaging any of them in conversation. In her poor mood, she didn't care about the rain, not bothering to run up the castle steps like the other students. When she made it into the Entrance Hall, Professor Minerva McGonagall was yelling at the school's patron poltergeist, Peeves, who was dropping red balloons filled with water on the students as they ran in seeking refuge from the rain. 

"Already wet!" Peeves yelled, tossing his last balloon at Callie, who pulled her wand lightning-quick and pointed it at the balloon hurtling toward her.

" _Depulso!_ " She cried, and the balloon went flying back the way it came, shooting through Peeves' chest and landing with a splash on a painting behind him. The painting grumbled indignantly, but Callie just shook the water out of her blonde hair and shoved her wand into her robes as she pushed through the crowd.

The feast was amazing, as always, though it looked like Hermione might be sick, since she refused to eat a bite. Callie ate every bit of food she could get her hands on, right down to the chocolate gateau and a large slice of spotted dick. It suddenly occurred to her that she might be eating her feelings, that she was trying to drown her sorrows in chocolate cake, so she stopped short of a second piece of the gateau. Eventually, Dumbledore took the podium and the food all cleared away. "So, now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices."

_*Here's the new Defense teacher and the announcement on the Tournament._ * Callie thought.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it. As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year." Callie's eyes flicked from her own House's Quidditch players to Harry, Fred and George, who all looked completely appalled. "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy- but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing this year at Hogwarts-"

Dumbledore was interrupted by a deafening rumble of thunder and the door of the Great Hall banging open. A man in a black traveling cloak stood there, leaning on a long staff. He lowered his hood and started to walk to the teacher's table. He had a weird and weathered look to him and his eyes were strange, one being small dark and beady and the other being large round as a coin and vivid, electric blue. The blue eye was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and was rolling up, down and from side to side, quite independently of the normal eye. As he passed Callie, she felt darkness in him. He felt like her uncle, but worse. His normal eye fell on her and he stopped for a second before continuing his stride toward Dumbledore. 

He nodded at Dumbledore as he passed, then sat at the empty seat on the High Table and started to eat. "May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Professor Moody."

There were murmurs down the Slytherin table about 'Mad-eye Moody' and it became very clear that Moody had worked to put Dark Wizards away in Azkaban and had, of course, sent up many of the family members of the Slytherin students.  _*Maybe that's why he feels dark. He's been surrounded by darkness for most of his career.*_

"As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century." Dumbledore continued. "It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" said Fred loudly.

Laughter rolled across the Hall. "I am  _not_  joking, Mr. Weasley, though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag and a leprechaun who all go into a bar-" Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly. "Er, but maybe this is not the time... no... where was I? Ah, yes, the Triwizard Tournament... well some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who  _do_  know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely. 

The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities- until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

'Death toll' made it seem like it wasn't just the cockatrice incident that ended the tournament last time.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament, none of which has been very successful. However, our own Departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger. The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their shortlisted contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decided which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts, the Heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age- that is to say, seventeen years or older- will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion. I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen."

Dumbledore bid everyone go to bed and Callie got up to walk down to the dungeons, but she noticed that Fred and George were stubbornly sitting in their seats, grumbling about how Dumbledore couldn't keep them from trying. Whatever the 'Impartial judge' would be, they were going to try to find a way to put their names in. It made her happy to see Fred's ire pointed at Dumbledore instead of her.

Callie wanted nothing to do with the Triwizard Tournament. She could hear the others whispering excitedly about it, and she knew the Weasley twins would be stopping at nothing to get their names considered. She knew it was more about the money than the glory for them. The Weasleys were poor and, though they were too proud to beg, a thousand Galleons would go a long way toward Fred and George's dream of running a joke shop.

Callie had never put much emphasis on money. In fact, she was set to inherit a million pounds, somewhere around 200,000 Galleons, from her adoptive parents' life insurance policies and she rarely thought about that money. She was much more interested in inheriting her childhood home, the little three-story townhouse in London. She had been counting down the days to her seventeenth birthday since the barrister told her that she could go home then.

No, Callie didn't care about money and she cared less about glory and renown. She had more infamy from her parentage than she cared to acknowledge and putting her life on the line for some applause? Her life was dangerous enough without adding to it.


	3. Mad-Eye

Callie barely paid attention in Charms. Filius Flitwick had them reviewing Cheering Charms. As she left Charms, Callie ran into Lee Jordan and the Weasley twins. Lee and George smiled and said 'Hello', but Fred just glared as he pushed past her into the classroom. Callie scoffed and turned to the other two. "Can someone please tell me what I've done to make Fred hate me? I mean, I know I pushed everyone away but he seemed to understand  _why_ last year."

George and Lee looked at each other and Lee shrugged before following Fred into Charms. George gave her a thoughtful look before sighing. "I don't really think it's my place to say, Callie. But if it makes you feel better; Ron, Ginny and I appreciate you trying to keep us safe."

"So, I  _have_  done something?" She asked.

"I didn't say that." George said, walking into Flitwick's class.

Callie stomped off toward Arithmancy class, hating how much she missed Fred's greeting of 'Callie, my pally!"

~~

After lunch, Callie went to Potions. She didn't have Potions after lunch, but as she had been for the past three years, Callie was Severus Snape's Teaching Assistant, which was a ruse to cover up the fact that he'd been teaching her the art of keeping her thoughts to herself, called Occlumency. It had been deemed a necessity in her first year, after her father, who was living parasitically inside her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, invaded her mind and put a dark spot on her soul that still caused her father's inner circle of dark wizards to clutch their Dark Marks when they first laid eyes upon her.

"Hello, Professor. How was your summer?" Callie asked, setting her bag on her T.A. desk.

"Blissfully free from you and Potter." 

"I see you've been passed over for the job, again." She snarled. She wasn't in the mood for his pettiness.

His dark eyes turned to hers and he examined her for a moment, before turning in his chair and standing. His eyes never left her, to the point that it was uncomfortable under his gaze. "Huh." He breathed out, eventually.

"What?" She asked, her original attitude forgotten.

"It took three years, but... you're an Occlumens. I can't read where this poor attitude is coming from."

Callie scoffed, amazed. "Boy problems." She answered, dismissively. "So, do I get to know, now?"

"You get-" Snape began, but his door opened and Professor Moody walked in, dragging a terrified-looking Draco by the back of his robes. 

When his eyes fell on Callie, Moody gave a small grunt from the back of his throat. He pushed Draco toward Snape and hobbled forward. "This disgrace of a wizard tried to hex another student. Waited for him to turn his back before he attacked, like a coward." Moody growled.

"Potter was talking about my mother!" Draco said, stumbling to a stop in front of Snape. "And  _he_ turned me into a ferret and bounced me-"

"Be glad I didn't do worse!" Moody growled. "It is a low wizard who attacks when their opponent's back is turned. Weak and cowardly!" His real eye was focused on Draco, but the magic one was focused on Callie.

"Who were  _you_ talking about, Draco? Harry wouldn't have said word one about Aunt Narcissa if you weren't speaking against his mother, or Ron's!" Callie accused.

"Shut up, Callie!" Draco growled.

"It doesn't matter why Potter said what he said." Snape said, eyeing Moody wearily. "There's no excuse for fighting. I'll take care of it, Alastor."

"Who's this one?" Moody asked, his real eye jumping to join his magic one focusing on Callie.

"Calidara Malfoy." Callie offered her hand to him.

"Malfoy?" Moody asked.

"Calidara Malfoy née Calidara Nefzen née Melanie Malfoy." 

"That's a lot of names. Why do you need so many names?" Moody asked, before taking her hand. 

"Well, my mum put me up for adoption-"

"Abandoned you, more like." Draco interrupted.

"No one asked you, ferret." Callie spat before turning her attention back to Moody. "My mum knew she was going to Azkaban, so she left me for a Muggle family to find. So, Melanie Malfoy became Calidara Nefzen, and when I got to Hogwarts and learned who I really was, I became an amalgam of both names." 

"You're He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's daughter. The Dark Lord's progeny. You don't look like much." said Moody, releasing her hand.

"I'll try not to be offended by that, as I am a fourteen year old girl and I probably shouldn't look like much, yet."

"More than she appears, Alastor. I'll thank you to leave so that I might set punishment for Draco and prepare for my next lesson." Snape seemed eager to get Moody out of his classroom, and out of his area.

"I'll return to talk to you later, Snape. When there aren't so many impressionables around." Moody grunted as he turned and started back out of the classroom.

"Detention, Malfoy." said Snape as the door closed behind Moody.

"What? It's not enough that he turned me into a bloody ferret and bounced me around the entrance hall, I've got detention, too?!" Draco whined.

"Don't question me!" Snape growled. Draco grumbled under his breath, but nodded. "Go to your next class."

"But you were about to-" Callie started, but the look Snape gave her said she needed to go.

She rolled her eyes and went to Care of Magical Creatures. Care of Magical Creatures left all of the Slytherins and Gryffindors with the question of 'what the heck is a Blast-ended Skrewt'? Callie checked her Monster Book of Monsters, but couldn't find it. 

When she went to see Snape again before Potions class the next morning, he said it would take far too long to explain it to her and that she would have to wait until they had some substantial time together, which would likely be when they had T.A. time, which would be starting at 'Some point this month'. "Some point this month?"

"You don't need my tutelage, any more." 

"No, no, this wasn't just about the-"

"I  _will_ tell you. Just not yet."

"This is about Moody, isn't it?" Callie asked, her voice low. "He was an Auror back when you were a Death Eater, wasn't he? That's why he makes you nervous."

"It's not your business-"

"We've had that discussion, sir. It's my business why you're my teacher and I've gone through years of training so that you could feel safe telling me what's gone on."

"I  _said_  I would tell you, Miss Malfoy, and I will. Just give me... time." 

"Fine." Callie dropped into her desk and waited for the class to start. 

Snape took his poor attitude out on Neville, who made himself a target by melting a hole in the bottom of his cauldron for the sixth time since they'd started school. She stayed back to help him with his detention, as he had to disembowel an entire bucket of horned toads. Neville had been grateful for her help, but he'd still looked like he was going to get sick about it. 

Thursday after lunch, all of the Gryffindor fourth years were lined up outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Most of the Slytherins were not. Defense was not a favorite class of the Slytherins and, after they'd heard what he did to Draco, most of them were not looking forward to Professor Moody's class. Callie managed to get a seat on the other side of Hermione, who was sitting next to Harry and Ron in the seats in front of Moody's desk. They all pulled out their books and waited, quietly. "You can put those away, those books. You won't need them." Moody clunked up to his desk and pulled out a scroll, reading out everyone's names off the register. He set it back on the desk after he'd finished marking everyone present. "Right then, I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures- you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?" There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind- very behind- on dealing with curses. So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark-"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.

Moody's eye whirred around and stared at Ron; Ron looked apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled. "You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh? Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago... Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement." He barked out a harsh laugh, then clapped his hands together. "So- straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking." 

Lavender jumped and blushed, putting away her Divination homework, which she was showing to Parvati Patil. "So... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by Wizarding law?" He pointed to Ron as he raised his hand.

Ron looked over at Callie before clearing his throat. "Er... my dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes. Your father  _would_  know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse." Moody pulled open his desk drawer and grabbed a jar of containing three large black spiders. He reached into the jar and picked out one of the spiders, holding it on his palm so everyone could see. He pointed his wand at it and muttered, " _Imperio!_ " 

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance. Around Callie, everyone was laughing, but she couldn't see the humor in it. That was the curse her mother had been under, the curse that caused her mother's pregnancy, and her mother's insanity. That the spider could be forced to do something so unnatural to it... that was terrifying.

Moody wasn't laughing, either. "Think it's funny, do you? You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?" He growled and the laughter died away almost instantly. "Miss Malfoy is the only who seems to understand. Total control." said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats. Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse." 

Callie looked down at her desktop. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He barked, picking up the spider and throwing it back into the jar. "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Hermione's hand flew up, of course, but so did Neville's. Even Neville looked surprised that his hand was in the air. "Yes?" Moody said.

"There's one- the Cruciatus Curse." Neville answered. His voice was small, but not indistinct.

Moody looked at Neville intently, both eyes focusing on him. "Your name's Longbottom?" Neville nodded, but Moody didn't continue questioning him. He just reached his hand into the jar and grabbed another spider. "The Cruciatus Curse. Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea.  _Engorgio_!" The spider swelled up bigger than a tarantula and Ron scooted his chair backward, as far as he could get away from the spider. Moody pointed his wand at the spider and muttered " _Crucio_!"

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Callie was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently-

"Stop it!" Hermione's voice was shrill and Callie turned to look to where her eyes were set. Not on the spider, as hers had been, but on Neville, whose hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified.

Moody stopped, reducing its size and throwing the spider back into the jar. "Pain." he said, softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse... That one was very popular once, too. Right... anyone know any others?" Callie knew the last one, just as she was certain Draco did, as she'd threatened him with it less than a month ago, and Hermione who tentatively put her hand in the air. "Yes?"

" _Avada Kedavra._ " Hermione whispered, looking like she knew she'd just sentenced that last spider to death. 

"Ah. Yes, the last and worst.  _Avada Kedavra_... the Killing Curse." He grabbed the spider and put it on the desk, a difficult task as the spider tried to get away. Moody raised his wand and pointed it at the spider. " _Avada Kedavra_!" He roared. There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound and the spider fell over dead, completely unmarked. Several students put their hands over their mouths to stifle cries and Ron had thrown himself backward so hard he'd almost fallen out of his seat. Callie looked over at Harry, who had a look of pure terror on his face that matched well with her and Neville's looks from earlier in the lesson. 

"Not nice, not pleasant." Moody swept the spider off of his desk and onto the floor. "And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me.  _Avada Kedavra_ 's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it- you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it. Now, if there's no countercurse, why am I showing you?  _Because you've got to know_. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

"Now... those three curses- Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus- are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban." Moody's magic eye zoomed to Callie and she felt the eyes of her peers follow suit. "That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice  _constant, never-ceasing vigilance_. Get out your quills... copy this down..." 

The class was silent except for Moody's words as they copied down notes about the three curses. As she walked out at the end of class, she heard the other Slytherins joking about 'those sensitive Gryffindors'. "Did you hear him praise Callie for getting all upset about the Imperius Curse? My father was under that curse, too, and I didn't tear up like a bitch." Draco teased.

"You, also, didn't show an ounce of humanity when he was torturing the spider with Cruciatus!" Callie snapped, stomping past him down the corridor. "Your father's had that one done to him, as well, hasn't he?"

"Yeah, by your mad mum."

Callie stopped short and spun around to him. She moved close, getting in her cousin's face. "My 'mad mum' should have used  _Avada Kedavra_  on your father! I'll never understand why she didn't off the man who tortured her for months."

"I'm going to tell Father you-"

"Once again,  _Draco_ , you won't say anything. You never will... because you don't what to deal with the thought that your father might not do anything to 'help' you." She rolled her eyes and stomped away past the Slytherins.

It was a few weeks later that Professor Moody announced he was going to be putting the entire class under the Imperius curse. Callie swallowed, nervously, as Hermione argued that it was illegal and Moody responded with, "If you'd rather learn the hard way- when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely- fine by me. You're excused. Off you go." jutting a thumb at the door. Callie stood, and the entire class looked at her, including Moody, whose magic eye whirred to settle on her. "You'll be leaving, then, Miss Malfoy?"

Callie cursed under her breath and turned to the professor. "As a former Auror, I'm sure you know what happened to my Mum."

"Of course, I do."

"Then you understand why I can't allow myself to be put under the same curse that-that drove her insane."

"I  _understand_ that you'd be wanting to know what took your mother's mind from her, what caused her to do those terrible things for all those months she was gone." Moody stepped forward, his wooden leg clunking on the floor. "I understand that you'd be wanting to see how she was able to pull herself out of it, how she learned to resist." Callie blinked at him and bit her lip. "You should stay for the lesson, lassie." She didn't speak as she took her seat, again. 

As she watched the other students doing spectacular stunts under the influence of the the curse, she got angrier and angrier. It wasn't fair that Neville was being made to back-flip across the room, or Dean Thomas hopping around singing 'God Save the Queen'. It was just as unfair as her mother being made to have sex with Voldemort and being made to be a Death Eater. When he called on Harry, Harry moved like he was going to jump onto the desk, but seemed to stop short, jumping into the desk instead of onto it, his knees knocking into the edge of the desk. 

"Now,  _that's_  more like it! Look at that, you lot... Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We'll try that again in a moment, wanna get through the rest of you. When I do this again, pay attention- watch his eyes, that's where you'll see it- very good, Potter, very good indeed. They'll have trouble controlling  _you_! Miss Malfoy, you next."

Callie stood and swallowed, nervously, again. Hermione and Harry both gave her a look of pity as she crossed to the center of the room. Draco was snickering with Crabbe and Goyle in the back of the room and she was filled with the urge to hurt them, but she instead focused on Moody's wand as he pointed it at her and said, " _Imperio_!"

Calidara suddenly felt like every regret and worry and  _thought_  was being wiped away from her mind. She pulled them back, focusing on her mother and Remus Lupin and Sirius Black and Fred hating her as Moody's voice echoed in her head.  _Do a cartwheel._  

Her arms went a little stiff, but she didn't do what she was told.

No.

_Do a cartwheel._ The feeling of her thoughts pulling away from her intensified but she stayed resolute.

No, I won't. 

_Do a cartwheel._

"I SAID NO!" She shouted and the whole room jumped. Moody set down his wand on his desk and hobbled forward, his eyes boring into her. She stood, breathing heavily as everyone stared at her.

"That was a full resist. You beat it on the first try. I've only ever seen a trained Occlumens resist so fast." Callie looked around the class, unsure what she should say. "That's one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. I should've expected as much from you, with who your parents are." 

"Can I sit back down now?" She said, stiffly. 

"You can do whatever you want. No one can control you, lass." said Moody, approvingly. He watched her intently as she slid down the row of desks to her own chair and sat down. 

"How'd you  _do_ that?" Hermione whispered, looking beyond dazzled.

Callie shook her head, slightly. "I just  _did_." She lied.

"Can you teach me that?" Ron whispered leaning over the desk to look at her past Harry and Hermione.

Callie shook her head. "Don't know how. Don't know how I did it." Callie leaned back as Moody started working on Gregory Goyle. 


	4. French Boys and Flames

Snape kept avoiding telling her what she wanted to know. Even when she told him that she'd successfully used Occlumency to resist the Imperius Curse, he didn't tell her. He had even stopped asking her to stay after class and cut their night sessions. She didn't need them anymore, according to him, and she needed to focus on her increased workload, as all of her teachers were working to get her and the others ready for their Ordinary Wizarding Level tests, which they were going to take at the end of their fifth year. 

When the sign went up, announcing that the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would be arriving on Friday the 30th of October at 6 o'clock, everyone was excited except Callie who was apathetic. She had much too much work to do. The day before Halloween, Harry came to her in the Great Hall during lunch with a note clutched in his hand. "Uh, would I be able to borrow your owl?" 

"What do you need Athena for?" She asked, looking up from her Transfiguration text book.

"Uh..." Harry looked like he wasn't sure what he should say. "Can we talk somewhere?" Callie closed her book and followed him out to the courtyard. "So, I got this letter and... Maybe it'd be better if you just read it." Harry handed her the rolled-up piece of parchment, and she unraveled it.

_Nice try, Harry._

_I'm back in the country and well hidden. I want you to keep me posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts. Don't use Hedwig. Melanie has a little owl, I'm certain she'd let you use it, and don't worry about me, just watch out for yourself. Don't forget what I said about your scar._

_Sirius_

"What's this about your scar?" She asked, handing it back. 

"How's Sirius know about you?" Harry asked, in turn.

"So, you need Athena to send clandestine communications to your godfather?" 

Harry sighed. "Yes. She's a lot less conspicuous than Hedwig."

"What happened with your scar?" She asked, in a tone that said 'I'm not going to help you until you answer my questions'.

"I had a dream and it hurt when I woke up."

"What kind of dream?"

Harry sighed. He obviously didn't want to talk about it, but he continued. "It was Voldemort, in an old rundown house, with Peter Pettigrew and he was talking about plans and killing people and there was a python and he was speaking to it, and then he killed this old Muggle caretaker, and when I woke up, my scar hurt." He said, quickly.

"What do you think that means?"

"I dunno. You haven't heard from your dad lately, have you?" said Harry, dismissively.

"No. Not since he was on the back of Quirrel's head." She answered, shortly. Harry obviously wasn't expecting that answer, because his eyes went wide. "Yes, I  _was_ unfortunate enough to have had an unsolicited conversation with Voldemort last time he was at Hogwarts. Of course, not in person, he didn't want me to see him like that." She rolled her eyes. "Your scar hurt last time he was here, right? So, it's a portent of bad things to come, right?"

"You sound like Trelawney." He muttered.

"I sound like someone who's worried about the future and is concerned for a fr-friend." She stumbled over the word because Harry raised an eyebrow. "Which I know I haven't been the best of, but... it's not... Your scar is the physical representation of your connection to Voldemort, Harry. Don't take this lightly. Sirius is right."

"How does Sirius know you?"

"He was friends with my mum, right, if he was friends with Lupin and Lupin was dating her." She deflected. 

"Yeah, but how's he know you have a little owl and that you're the kind of person who'd let me borrow it?"

She smiled at him. "Well, since I know that you're in contact with Sirius, I suppose it won't hurt to let you know that I was in contact with Sirius when he was running around the school grounds as a dog."

"What? When did you-"

"If I'd said anything, especially before you knew he'd been framed by Peter Pettigrew, it would've seemed that I was colluding with him. I know how easily you fall into the thinking of my being evil." 

"So, you knew he was innocent and you didn't-"

"Who was I going to tell? Who would've believed me? No one. Bloody Hell, Harry, even Professor Lupin believed Sirius was evil until the night in the Shrieking Shack and Voldemort's daughter, who'd've believed it out of my mouth?"

Harry looked down, then back up with a bit of sparkle in his eyes. "So you knew he was an Animagus? And that he wasn't the Secret-Keeper? How'd you meet him? Did he come to you?"

Callie scoffed, happily. "Instead of Hogsmeade, I spend my weekends in the Forbidden Forest since my parents died, it makes me feel better. I've only done Hogsmeade a single time, right before Christmas. Sirius was basically living out there last year, we were bound to run into each other. I recognized him from the posters and said that he couldn't kill me because Voldemort would be mad and he told me that he wasn't a bloody Death Eater and explained the entire situation. I couldn't tell anyone because who'd believe me? It's a problem that I'm constantly facing."

"Right. Well... I'd've believed you." Harry responded.

"No, you wouldn't have. You  _hated_  Sirius until that night in the Shrieking Shack." Harry nodded. He'd had a powerful hatred of Sirius Black from the moment he heard the 'official story' to the moment he heard Peter Pettigrew admit that he'd been the Secret-Keeper. "You can use Athena for whatever you need. Tell Sirius to stay safe. It'd be terrible if anything happened to him." 

"Thanks, Callie." Harry said, smiling brightly.

They were released from Potions early and went to get their official Hogwarts cloaks on. Their Heads of House led them out into the courtyard of the castle. There were murmurs all throughout the crowd about how the other schools might be showing up, Callie just wanted to go back inside so she could work on her History of Magic essay. 'The Goblin Rebellions of the 18th Century' wasn't going to write itself. Eventually, murmurs went through the crowd and people started to point over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest. Something large was flying toward the castle. "It's a dragon!" "Don't be stupid, it's a flying house!" 

"It's a bloody carriage." Callie said, rolling her eyes. "Pulled by Abraxans." 

"What's an Abraxan?" A fifth year Slytherin asked. 

"A giant horse with wings." said Callie as the light from the windows of the castle hit the the side of a giant pale blue carriage being pulled by a dozen giant palominos with wings. The carriage touched down in front of them and a boy in light blue robes jumped out and messed with something on the carriage, and a set of steps fell down. Gasps went through the crowd as the reason for the giant carriage and horses became apparent. A very large woman stepped out of the carriage. She was enormous, quite as large as Rubeus Hagrid. Dumbledore greeted her as Madame Maxime and she called him 'Dumbly-dorr'. She introduced her students, a dozen attractive boys and girls in pale blue robes made of fine silk, as they shivered in her shadow. They went inside to warm up, and the Hogwarts students marveled at them as they walked by. 

It was only a few moments after the Beauxbatons students disappeared from their view that Ron exclaimed, "Can you hear something?" and indeed, they could. A muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed. 

"The lake! Look at the lake!" Lee Jordan yelled. Everyone turned to look at the Black Loch, which normally would have been smooth, but it wasn't this time. Something was disturbing the water, great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks and then, out in the middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor, and slowly, magnificently, a ship rose from the water. The sound of an anchor dropping hit their ears, then the sound of a plank being lowered onto the bank. The Durmstrang students were all wearing heavy cloaks of matted fur, but the Headmaster was wearing a cloak of silver fur. Dumbledore greeted him as 'Professor Karkaroff'. And then a murmur went through the crowd because one of the Durmstrang students was none other than Viktor Krum, Seeker for the Bulgaria Quidditch team. As they followed the Durmstrang students up into the Great Hall, a bunch of people started trying to find things to write with, asking each other for quills and squabbling over lipsticks. 

When they entered the Great Hall, they saw the Beauxbatons students had taken seats at the Ravenclaw table. They looked thoroughly uncomfortable and unhappy to be there. The Durmstrang students looked happier to be there as they sat at the Slytherin table. Draco immediately leaned forward to talk to Krum. "It's good to have you here. You know, I almost went to Durmstrang, myself. My father is friends with Professor Karkaroff. My name's Draco, Draco Malfoy."

Krum nodded at him, obviously not impressed with his parentage. "Krum's famous, Draco. He's not impressed by your last name." Callie teased, sitting down across from Viktor.

Viktor Krum gave an almost smile. Dumbledore stood and formally greeted the guests, said the Triwizard Tournament would officially start after the feast and told everyone to enjoy. Food appeared on all of the platters, including some foodstuffs that were definitely not native to Great Britain. One of the Beauxbatons boys, handsome and pale with full dark hair, walked up and pointed at a platter in front of Callie. "Are you done wiz ze cassoulet?"

"Bien sûr. Prenez la plaque." ["Of course. Take the plate."] Callie answered. 

The boy smiled, obviously surprised. "Parle francais?" ["You speak French?"]

"Un petit peu." ["A little bit."]

"Je ne m'attendais pas à ce qu'un étudiant de 'Ogwarts parle français." ["I didn't expect a student from Hogwarts to speak French."]

Callie chuckled. "I'm sure I'm not the  _only_ one. Go on and take the cassoulet. None of these lot are even gonna try it." 

"Merci!" The boy smiled as he reached past Krum to pick up the platter holding the cassoulet. "Comment t'appelles-tu?" ["What's your name?"]

"Callie. Et toi?" 

"Je m'appelle Luc. Enchanté, Callie." ["My name is Luc. Nice to meet you, Callie."]

She blushed as he bowed to her, slightly. "Bon appétit, Luc." ["Enjoy your meal, Luc."]

"Et toi." ["You, too."] He said, as he turned with the platter and carried it back to the head of the Ravenclaw's table.

"You in love with the frog, Callie? Seems like your type. Think he gives or receives?" Draco snarled.

"Think he's more of a gentleman than you'll ever be, ferret. And even if he  _were_ like that, probably get more women than you, anyway." Callie grumbled. She looked past Viktor Krum to the Gryffindor table and was shocked to see Fred glaring at her. "Oh, what'd I do now?" She whispered to herself, looking down. She finished her meal with a Napoleon and a slice of cake, all the while dodging angry looks from Fred. 

Once the golden plates were wiped clean, Dumbledore stood again. Then, and only then, did Fred Weasley's focus shift from her. "The moment has come. The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket, just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports." There was a round of applause for Bagman, but not for Crouch. "Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

At that, Filch brought in a huge wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely odd. Callie wasn't as interested as everyone else, paying minimal attention as Dumbledore started talking about the three tasks and how the Ministry had arranged for it all and how the tasks were going to be a test of magical prowess, daring, powers of deduction and their ability to cope with danger. "As you know, three champions compete in the tournament, one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore tapped the casket three times with his wand and the lid creaked slowly open. He reached inside and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been completely unremarkable if it hadn't been full of blue-white flames. "Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet. Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judge most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete. To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line. Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed."

Everyone stood. "Good night. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Krum." Callie said as Karkaroff stepped up to the table to gather his students. Krum just nodded. Karkaroff's eyes moved across the table and settled on Callie and he did the one thing that would make her distrust a man she'd never met; he hissed in pain and grabbed his left forearm. No wonder Karkaroff was friends with Lucius, both were Death Eaters who'd managed to stay out of Azkaban. He looked away from her, unnerved, and began to usher his students toward the door, where he stopped short, staring at Harry. 

"Yeah, that's Harry Potter." A voice behind Karkaroff made him turn. A look of fury and fear came over him as his eyes fell on Mad-eye Moody.

"You!"

"Me, and unless you've got anything to say to Potter, Karkaroff, you might want to move. You're blocking the doorway." 

Karkaroff moved out of the way and headed off with his students to the ship. 

~~

The next morning, Callie ate her breakfast in the Entrance Hall, munching on granola and watching as people tried to get past the Age Line. The entirety of the Durmstrang delegation put their names in, and a Ravenclaw girl tried to age herself to get past the line, as did a Hufflepuff boy. Callie knew, as she watched Fred, George and Lee giggling as they approached the Line, that they'd done something to age themselves, too. They each stopped and pulled out a slip of paper with their name and 'Hogwarts' written on it. Fred moved forward into the golden circle that was the Age Line. For a second, it seemed like it may have worked. George jumped across the line to hug Fred, but then there was a loud sizzling sound and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle. They landed painfully, ten feet away, and to add insult to their injury, there was a loud popping noise and both of them sprouted identical long white beards. Callie laughed, as did the rest of the Entrance Hall including the twins.

Dumbledore appeared on the stairs, telling them to head to Madam Pomfrey as she was already dealing with the two attempts from earlier. A few minutes later, the students from Beauxbatons entered the Entrance Hall and lined up to put their names in. Luc noticed Callie in the corner and broke off from the group. He smiled brightly. "Bonjour, Callie! Comment ça va ?" ["Hello, Callie. How are you?"]

"Ça va bien. Merci. Et toi?" ["Everything is fine. Thanks. And you?"]

"Oui. Will you be putting your name in ze goblet?"

"Non, je ne suis pas assez vieux." ["No, I'm not old enough."] She answered, standing. "And even if I was old enough, I wouldn't want to risk my life for... just some money, you know? Just not that interested. I'll be rooting for you if you get it, though."

"Merci." Luc turned to see it was almost his go at the goblet. "I have to go. I will see you later, non?"

"Oui. Bon chance, Luc." ["Yes. Good luck, Luc."]

"Merci."

Lee Jordan was staring at her as she brushed bits of granola off of the front of her robes. "What? What have I done now?" She growled, loud enough for Lee to hear her.

"I just don't think you should be getting all close with the French boys."

"Oh, and why not?"

Lee shrugged. "Just that there's plenty of English boys right here at Hogwarts."

"Not a single one that would look at me with the dazzling eyes that one's put on me. Got a bad reputation with the boys  _here_ , don't I? Even the ones who've been my friends since I was a First Year glare at me across the Great Hall now." Lee opened his mouth, but Callie continued. "So, unless you wanna tell me what I've done to Fred Weasley to make him hate me, you can keep your opinions to yourself about who I get close with."

"I always thought you liked Harry." Lee mused.

Callie rolled her eyes. "No. No, I have never liked Harry like that, even when  _he_ liked me. Besides which, even if I did, Harry's  _obviously_ got a thing for Cho Chang, now." She sighed and stomped over to Lee. "Why don't you tell me what I've done, huh, Lee? If you tell me what I've done, maybe I can fix it."

"Interested in fixing it, then?" Lee asked, eyebrows raising.

"Oh, never bloody mind!" She growled, stomping away. Of course she was interested in fixing it. She would have given anything to make up with Fred. 

~~

That night, there was the feast and Luc walked over to insist that she try a French pastry. She blushed as he fed it to her and ignored the desire to look over to see Fred glaring at her again. Once the plates were cleared, Dumbledore stood to pick the names from the Goblet of Fire. The champions were all told to go into a side room. Viktor Krum was chosen from Durmstrang and the veela-looking girl from Beauxbatons, which made several Beauxbatons students cry, and then Cedric Diggory was named the Hogwarts champion. Callie was happy for a Hufflepuff to be given some notoriety and was getting ready to get up and head for the dungeons when the goblet spit out another name. Harry's. The room erupted, no one knowing quite what to make of it. Dumbledore sent Harry into the side chamber and was about to follow him when another name popped out. "Calidara Malfoy."

All eyes turned on her and she just shook her head. "It didn't work for Potter and it's not going to work for you. You have to get up and go." Draco spat.

Callie stood and walked up to Dumbledore. "I'm not doing it." She said, resolutely.

"Miss Malfoy-"

"No. I did not put my name in and I'm not doing it. You can ask anyone. I've never wanted to participate in this ridiculous-"

"Go into the chamber, Miss Malfoy." Dumbledore demanded.

The side chamber was full of angry champions and uncomfortable officials. They were determined that it was unfair for there to be three champions from one school and one from each of the other two, Snape accused Harry of breaking the rules to put his name in and ignored the fact that Callie was named, too. Dumbledore turned to the fourteen year olds and cleared his throat. "Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, Harry?" 

"No." Harry answered.

"And you, Calidara, did you put your name in the goblet?"

"No." She stressed. "I don't even want to participate. Take me off the roster. I don't want to play."

"And did either of you ask an older student to put your names in the Goblet of Fire for you?"

" _No_!"

"Ah, but of course zey are lying." Madame Maxime accused.

"Je ne mens pas!" ["I do not lie!"] Callie growled. Madame Maxime looked taken aback that she could speak French.

"And there is no way they could possibly have gotten past the Age Line." McGonagall argued. 

Eventually it came to them asking Bagman and Crouch, as the objective judges, what to do. Barty Crouch was obviously deep in thought but when he answered, it was with a curtness. "We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."

Karkaroff started to argue it, saying that they needed to resubmit until all schools had three champions but Ludo Bagman said that it was impossible, as the Goblet of Fire went out after Callie's name was ejected and it wouldn't reignite until the next tournament. Karkaroff said he had half a mind to head back to Durmstrang without participating. "Empty threat, Karkaroff. You can't leave your champion now. He's got to compete. They've all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?" Moody said, hobbling into the room. He limped toward the fire, going thunk with every other step.

"Convenient? I'm afraid I don't understand you, Moody."

"Don't you? It's very simple, Karkaroff. Someone put Potter and Malfoy's names in that goblet knowing they'd have to compete if they came out."

Maxime and Karkaroff said it was someone who wanted Hogwarts to have three opportunities to win, complaining loudly. "If anyone's got reason to complain, it's these two, but funny thing, don't hear them saying a thing."

"Why would zey complain? Zey 'ave ze chance to compete, 'aven't zey?" Fleur said, stamping her foot. "We 'ave all been 'oping to be chosen for weeks and weeks! Ze honor for our schools. A thousand Galleons in prize money- zis is a chance many would die for!"

"Maybe someone's hoping Potter and Malfoy  _are_  going to die for it." said Moody with the merest trace of a growl.

Bagman laughed it off and Karkaroff accused Moody of imagining things. "Imagining things, am I? Seeing things, eh? It was a skilled witch or wizard who put these kids name in that goblet..."

"Ah, what evidence is zere of zat?" said Madame Maxime, throwing up her huge hands.

"Because they hoodwinked a very powerful magical object! It would have needed and exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools compete in the tournament... I'm guessing they submitted Potter and Malfoy's names under a fourth and a fifth school, to make sure they were the only one in their respective categories." 

Karkaroff once again accused Moody of being paranoid and Moody snapped back saying he was well-versed in thinking like a Dark Wizard and that they were prone to turning innocent occasions to their advantage. Dumbledore took over, calming the situation. "How this situation arose, we do not know. It seems to me, however that we have no choice but to accept it. Cedric, Callie and Harry have been chosen to compete in the tournament. This, therefore, they will do..."

"Ah, but Dumbly-dorr-"

"My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it." There was silence for a while before they moved on, with Barty Crouch giving them their instructions. 

"The first task is designed to test your daring so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard... very important... The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges. The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests. I think that's all, is it, Albus?"

As Madame Maxime led Fleur out of the room, the two spoke very fast in French and Callie couldn't catch all of it, but caught enough to know they were talking about how unfair it was and how they didn't believe that Harry and Callie hadn't put their names in. Dumbledore told the Hogwarts students to head to their respective Common Rooms but Snape grabbed the back of Callie's robes and led her away. "How did you do it?" He growled, in the Entrance outside the Great Hall. 

"I  _didn't_!" She responded, pulling away. 

"If you think being an Occlumens is going to keep me from finding out how you-"

"I didn't do it! I don't  _want_ to participate and when you add in that terrible theory Mad-eye's got, I  _really_  don't want to participate. Someone else put my name in that bloody cup and now I have to risk my bloody life in this stupid tournament, so why don't you do your damn job as my Head of House and find out who's trying to kill me and Harry?"

Snape examined her carefully before nodding. "Who would want you dead?"

"I doubt my father likes me much. I'd say Lucius but he's working very hard to turn me instead of killing me. Maybe some Death Eater who thinks I've disgraced Voldemort's name. I don't know. I'm fourteen years old, this is a little beyond me. This whole thing is a little beyond me." Her eyes prickled but she just blinked it away. "I don't want to do this, but fine, I have to. Binding bloody contract."

"Go to bed, Miss Malfoy."

When Callie got to the Slytherin Common Room, she was showered with accolades about how she beat the system. She rolled her eyes and just went to her dorm room. She lied in her bed, staring at the canopy over her. Someone was trying to kill her. She had no way out, she couldn't walk away or quit. She was stuck.

The next morning, she woke early, before breakfast, before the sun was up, and traveled the halls. She came to a quiet, abandoned corridor on the fourth floor where she tucked in behind one of the statues and started to cry. She couldn't cry in the Slytherin Common Room. She couldn't cry in front of people. She couldn't let anyone see how scared she was. She couldn't show weakness.

The sun was just starting to shine through the windows along the corridor when she heard footsteps. She wiped at her eyes and calmed her breathing but when she looked up, she looked into the familiar face of Fred Weasley. She expected a glare, or for him to stomp off as he'd been doing for the past two months whenever he saw her, but he just bent down next to her. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm not. Just... got allergies." She lied.

"You're worried about the tournament, aren't you?" He asked, softly, moving to sit on the cold stone floor next to her.

She was a bit enamored with Fred being nice to her, so she wiped at her eyes again and looked around before nodding. "I'm bloody terrified." She whispered.

"You aren't excited to be a part of it, chance at a thousand gold?" 

She shook her head. "I didn't want to be part of it. I didn't put my name in, and neither did Harry. Someone must have put them in for us, to put us in danger... and the only thing that connects me and Harry, really, is my father and I'm so scared, Fred." Fred was silent for a minute before reaching over and putting a hand on her knee. She looked at it, confused. "You've been being horrible to me for months and now you care that I'm sad? Why?"

Fred scooted closer to her, half behind the statue, now. "You didn't write me, Callie."

"What?"

"Over the summer holiday, you didn't write me- me and George, I mean." Fred clarified. "First time since we met that you didn't send us a letter or two while we were away. I was thinkin', you know, maybe the money got to you, 'cause you stopped bein' friendly after you found out you were gonna be living at a mansion like a proper Malfoy."

Callie scoffed. It was the simplest problem, which could've been solved months ago if Fred had just talked to her. "Fred, I didn't write you because I didn't write to anybody. I was stuck in Wiltshire, and Athena bloody hated the manor, so she flew back to Hogwarts and stayed the summer here. Wish I could've done the same, honestly. I hate the manor, too. And I don't need Lucius and Narcissa's money to live like a 'proper Malfoy' and honestly, Fred, I'm  _not_  a proper Malfoy. I hate them."

"Well, I was just thinking, because of the timing of when you stopped being-"

"The timing? You mean, right after my parents were murdered just for being my parents when I decided that it would be safer for all of my friends to not be my friends any longer, that timing?"

"Well, I mean-" Fred looked down, like he'd suddenly realized that he'd been being very silly. 

"You get it, right? You've been hating me for months because I was trying to  _protect_ you." Fred looked up at her, looking thoroughly chastised. "Well, do you?"

"I get it, all right. I've been pretty stupid, and you've been pretty selfless."

"I was right to worry, though, wasn't I? Look at what's happened. Someone is trying to kill me  _and_ Harry using  the bloody Triwizard Tournament as a weapon. This is exactly why I pushed you all away, to prevent you all being caught in the crossfire."

Fred smiled, softly. "But you can't fight this alone. You can't fight against all of this alone. Harry never would have made it through his first year at Hogwarts without having friends to lean on, and I know you think you don't need friends, but... Cal, what are friends for if not to help you navigate the trials and tribulations of life?"

"Yeah, well, my trials and tribulations are actually deadly, Freddie."

"Yeah, well, you're a lot less likely to die if you've got me and George in your corner." He leaned forward and hugged her. "Let us get your back, Cal. You need support in this thing."

"I'm not supposed to have help in the tournament, actually."

"I mean, you need support in life." said Fred, pulling back.

Callie blushed and pushed her hair behind her ears. "I welcome it. I've missed having proper friends, you know."

"Glad to hear it. Come on. We'll sneak down to the kitchens, steal some cake." Fred stood and offered her his hand, which she took. She'd started the day with fear and crying, but now she was going to have cake with a friend. "Oh, and the French boy is the enemy, you know? Now that you're a champion for Hogwarts, you can't really fraternize with the other side."

"Oh, is that how that works?"

"That's how that works. Not my rule, just how the biscuit crumbles."


	5. Dragons and Dogs

"So, what are you gonna do with the money if you win it?" Fred asked, as they ate their stolen cake off of napkins in the courtyard. 

"I dunno. Probably just get a vault at Gringotts and set it aside." said Callie, licking a bit of frosting off of her finger.

"Really?! You don't have anything you wanna splurge on?" 

"Not really."

"Well I guess auntie and uncle don't really let you want for anything." Fred tried not to sound upset, but he did.

"You know I don't really let them spoil me. I mean, I can't stop them buying me stuff, but I don't  _use_  it. Like, Aunt Narcissa bought me a Firebolt because she heard Harry's got one and it's still in its box back at the manor. I've never used it."

Fred looked at her with wide eyes. "You've got a Firebolt?"

"Yeah. You want it?" She offered completely unironically.

"Yo-you..." Fred shook his head. "I couldn't possibly."

"It's just gonna sit in a box if you don't take it. I'm not gonna ride it. Aunt Narcissa threw away my Comet when she bought the Firebolt, so I've got a grudge." 

Callie could tell that Fred was tempted, but then his pride kicked in, again. "No. Thanks, though."

"Your loss." She said, with a smile. She'd regift it to him for Christmas. "So, what have you been doing this whole time that you've been mad at me?"

"Trying to figure out how to get into the tournament, trying to make money, trying to figure out how to get Ludo Bagman to pay us the money he owes us from the Quidditch World Cup."

"What? I  _saw_ him pay you. You about knocked him over jumping the chairs in the top box."

"Yeah, but he paid us in leprechaun gold. It disappeared after a few hours. We don't know if he did it on purpose, but we do know that we want our winnings." 

"Well, right on you. That's terrible." 

"'course we're gonna take bets on the tournament. Even if we can't win the prize money, we can win something."

"Yeah? Am I gonna be long odds?" said Callie, smiling. "I mean, the Slytherin fourth year who doesn't even want to be playing, can't be a favorite to win." 

"The favorite seems to be Krum. Even the Hogwarts kids can't deny his awesomeness." 

"I would expect most of the boys to be rooting for Fleur. If that girl's not part veela, I'm a vampire."

"Oh, she is pretty and there are some boys who've fallen for her, like Ron, but most are rooting for Cedric or Krum."

"I won't take it too hard."

"I'll root for you." said Fred with a small smile.

"But you'll  _bet_  against me. Smart, too. I'm not playing to win, just to survive." 

"You and Harry are definitely going to run up against harsh opinions. It's already going around that you and Harry are false champions and if either of you wins, Hogwarts has lost."

"Well, if it were up to me, I wouldn't be a champion, at all. I'm dreading it, to be honest, Fred."

"Well, I trust you can survive. You made it into the Chamber of Secrets, and Ron told me you resisted the Imperius Curse on the first go." 

Callie blushed. "Well, if there's a challenge about talkin' to snakes then I'm more than ready for it." She joked.

"Aw, that wouldn't be fair for the other champions. It'd put you and Harry on for winning." Lee Jordan suddenly appeared behind her.

"Glad to see you fixed it." George flopped down next to Fred.

"It would've been fixed a long time ago if you and Lee would've told me what was wrong, or convinced Fred to talk to me about it."

"Well, it wasn't our place, and we  _tried_ to get him to talk to you." George responded.

"Especially after that Luc Dupuis started chatting you up. We told him he needed-" Lee started, but Fred kicked his leg out, his foot colliding with Lee's ankle.

"It's fixed, now. Let's move on." The three sixth year boys exchanged a look that Callie couldn't read, which left her slightly confused.

~~

That Monday was a difficult pill, with people glaring at her and whispering behind her back which, she realized halfway through Arithmancy, that she was actually used to that. And now that she had Fred back, she felt she could handle anything. After that, Callie let the enmity run off her back like water. When it came time for Potions, Draco and the rest of the Slytherins were waiting in the corridor outside of the classroom. They were all wearing badges on their robes that said 'Support Cedric Diggory- The REAL Hogwarts champion' in bright red letters. When the badges were tapped, the letters turned green and spelled out 'Potter and Nefzen STINK!'. Callie realized immediately that Draco must've made the badges and didn't want  _his_  last name on them. She let this, too, roll off her back, but Harry didn't and he didn't let it roll off his back when Draco started calling Hermione a Mudblood again. They started an impromptu duel in the corridor, their spells ricocheting off of each other, Harry's fungus spell hitting Goyle's face and Draco's  _Densaugeo_ hitting Hermione. Her two front teeth grew much larger, and when Snape showed up for class he very cruelly said he didn't see the difference in her face, which caused her to run off crying.

Harry and Ron, who were apparently having their first friend fight, both started shouting at Snape from opposite sides of the corridor, calling him names that were sure to get them in trouble, and of course it did. Fifty points were taken from Gryffindor and they were both given detentions. Class had barely started when there was a knock on the door and a small Gryffindor boy walked in. "Please, sir, I'm supposed to take Harry Potter and Callie Malfoy upstairs." Snape snarled that they still had an hour of Potions class left but Colin Creevy persisted, saying that Mr. Bagman wanted them upstairs, they had to take their things with them and they were going to be taking photographs. Colin ignored Callie as they walked upstairs. "It's amazing, isn't it, Harry? Isn't it, though, Harry? You being champion?"

"Yeah, really amazing. What is it that they want photos for, Colin?"

"The  _Daily Prophet_ , I think!"

"That's just what we want. More publicity." Callie rolled her eyes.

"Good luck, Harry." Colin said when they got to the room. 

"Guess  _I_  don't get any luck." Callie joked and Harry smiled for the first time in days.

Once they were in the room, Ludo Bagman ushered them toward the other champions and a woman in magenta robes who was standing next to a cameraman. Ludo explained they were there for the wand weighing and that just meant that an expert in wandcraft was going to check their wands to make sure that they were completely operational because their wands were the most important tool at their disposal for the Tournament. He introduced the woman in magenta as Rita Skeeter and said she was doing a small piece on the tournament for the  _Daily Prophet_.

"Maybe not  _that_  small, Ludo." Rita looked from Harry to Callie. "I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry and Calidara before we start? The youngest champions, you know... to add a bit of color?"

"Certainly! We want all of the best publicity for this tournament."

"I'll take young Miss Malfoy first." Rita pulled Callie into a side room and smiled at her. It was a broom closet, which Callie didn't mind, being so small, but she didn't want to be a part of the story. "You mind if I use a Quick Quotes Quill?"

Callie took on a cold persona. "Yes, I  _do_  mind." Callie pulled her wand out of her robe and pointed it at the quill. " _Immobulus!"_ The quill stopped its scratching as Callie put her wand away. "Let me be clear, Ms. Skeeter. I detest you. I've read some of your articles and I recognize you for what you are: the lowest form of journalist. You don't care about facts or truth, you just care about selling copies. The only reason I'm talking to you, at all, is because Mr. Bagman said I had to participate in all aspects of the Tournament, including the media coverage. Were it up to me, you wouldn't be allowed in the same room as me, because you have absolutely no integrity."

The reporter looked nervous as she cleared her throat and scooted away from Callie, just slightly. She grabbed the notepad and quill from the soap box they were poised upon and started to jot down notes by hand. "So... 14 years old, a child of privilege... a..." She cleared her throat and tried again. "It's been said that you attempted to back out when your name was drawn from the goblet. What was going through your mind at that moment?"

"I'm 14 years old, in a possibly fatal competition and I didn't put my own name in. What would be going through your head? Perhaps that someone sees you as a threat and is trying to get rid of you? I mean, with my father being who he is, I'm sure there are plenty of people who fear my potential enough to try and take me out now, while I'm young."

"And do you feel that people are generally against you? Is it you versus the Wizarding World?"

Callie rolled her eyes. "Are you stupid? I'm Voldemort's daughter." Rita flinched at the name. "Of course people are generally against me... until they meet me and they realize I'm more like my mum than my father."

"Your mother, who's in Azkaban?"

"She was a good witch until Voldemort drove her insane, but you don't care about that. You'll write it up that I idolize my crazy mum 'cause I have no better role models, won't you?"

Rita gave a small, uncomfortable chuckle, before continuing. "You were raised as a Muggle, right, not knowing you were a pure-blood witch until your arrival at Hogwarts?"

"Right. I was raised by two very lovely Muggle Healers who loved and cared for me until the day they died. You better not write anything bad about them."

"Wouldn't dream of it. Now, after your Muggle parents died you were taken in by your uncle Lucius, and took the name 'Malfoy', does it feel-"

"I was already 'Malfoy' before then. I took the name my first year at Hogwarts and my Muggle parents understood the change so I don't think it was a betrayal. That's what you were going to ask, right?"

Rita smiled, tightly. "Clever girl. I can see why you get such high marks. I, uh, think that's good enough."

Callie stood and scooted around Rita to the door. "I'll be reading your article, Miss Skeeter, and if you're planning to run anything about me that you don't know to be absolute fact, I'd ask you to keep in mind my family,  _both_ sides of it. Money and power can go a long way in influencing the media." It wasn't often that Callie traded on her name and it wasn't often she tried to scare grown witches out of doing a thing she didn't like, but she wasn't going to watch her and mother's names being disparaged. "Good luck." She whispered to Harry as Rita grabbed onto him and pulled him into the broom closet.

She leaned against the wall, waiting for the event to start, the tournament to move on. She was already ready for this to be over. Dumbledore walked in with Garrick Olivander following him. Callie smiled at the man, waving slightly as Dumbledore got Harry out of the broom closet. Olivander went through and checked each wand, starting with Fleur (who confirmed that her grandmother was a veela and her hair was the wand core), moving on to Cedric, then Krum, Callie and Harry's. It was announced that all of the wands were in working order and they were about to be sent away to dinner when Rita and Bagman insisted on getting pictures taken.

Callie walked down to the Great Hall with Harry afterward. "This situation's a mess." She said as they walked down the stairs.

"You're tellin' me. You know, Ron thinks I wanted this."

"No, he doesn't.  _He_  wanted it and you've got it, so he's mad. He'll get over it." 

"Yeah? When?"

"I dunno. Boys are stupid. No offense. Sometimes it takes them awhile to see they're being silly. You know Fred was mad at me for months for something that took two minutes of conversation to remedy. Maybe you should just talk to Ron."

"I'm not going to him. It's not my fault. I didn't do this."

"Preaching to the choir, Potter."

Harry nodded. "It's good to have someone in the boat with me."

"Hey, I know you used Athena the other night. Have you heard from Sirius, yet? I need Athena to send a letter to the manor. I mean, it's not an emergency, I just need Narcissa to send something to me before Christmas."

"Uh, no. Not yet, but I'll send her to you as soon as she gets back. Unless you want to borrow Hedwig?" Harry offered. 

"Maybe. I mean, if Athena's not back in a few days, I guess. Like I said, not too important."

"How bad do you think that article's going to be?"

"I don't think  _I_  have anything to worry about."

"What's that mean?"

"We'll have to see how it comes out." Callie looked from the Slytherin table to the Gryffindor table, wishing not for the first time that she was allowed to sit at the Gryffindor table. "Enjoy your dinner. Tell the twins I said 'hi'."

~~

Harry came to her the next day at breakfast. "Athena's back. Sirius replied."

"Anything good?" She asked. Harry just handed the note over to her. 

_Harry-_

_I can't say everything I would like to in a letter, it's too risky in case the owl is intercepted- we need to talk face-to-face. Can you ensure that you are alone by the fire in Gryffindor Tower at one o'clock in the morning on the 22nd of November?_

_I know better than anyone that you and Melanie can look after yourselves, and while you're around Dumbledore and Moody I don't think anyone will be able to hurt you. However, someone seems to be having a good try. Entering the two of you in that tournament would have been very risky, especially right under Dumbledore's nose._

_Be on the watch, Harry. Tell Melanie to watch her back, as well. I still want to hear about anything unusual. Let me know about the 22nd of November as quickly as you can._

_Sirius_

"So, do you wanna be there?" Harry asked as Callie handed the parchment back.

"What?" She looked down at the letter. "Gryffindor Tower at one o'clock in the morning?"

"Yeah. I know he said 'alone', but I thought since we're both in the same boat, like we were saying yesterday, and I can tell you like Sirius."

"Yeah, I do, but a Slytherin girl sneaking into Gryffindor Tower at one in the morning? Don't we have enough scandal surrounding us?"

"No one would catch us. We could use my Invisibility Cloak to make sure no one sees you."

"Okay, Harry. I'm in."

~~

Rita Skeeter's article was less about the tournament and more about Harry. It was full of quotes that sounded nothing like Harry which Callie was certain he hadn't had time to say.

"You let her use the Quick Quotes Quill, didn't you?" Callie said, sitting in the library with Harry and Hermione.

"Why? Y-you didn't?"

"Hell no. Quick Quotes Quills don't write what you say, they write what their owner  _wants_  you to say, I immobilized that thing as soon as I got in, that's why there's nothing ridiculously sentimental in my bit."

"Quite the opposite. I do enjoy the part where she calls you 'so cold she might give one frostbite'." Hermione mused.

"It was 1783." Callie corrected, pointing at Hermione's History essay, before returning to her own. "And she's just angry that I said she didn't have any integrity. Also, I threatened to tell Lucius if she printed lies about me."

"Which is why I'm portrayed as a sobbing mess and you're portrayed as an orphan made cold by her parents' deaths."

"Well, at least you've got a girlfriend." Callie joked.

Hermione gave a loud 'harrumph' from the other side of the table. That was the worst lie in the piece, according to Hermione. Callie picked up the  _Daily Prophet_ and read the article again. Her bit was fairly short, especially compared to Harry's several pages worth, but she got more printed than the other champions.

**The other surprise from the Goblet of Fire was Fourth year Slytherin, Calidara Malfoy. Her warm brown eyes seem designed to catch one off guard when confronted with the coldness of her personality. In fact, her snow-colored hair and pale skin are much more suited to the orphan, as she's so cold she might give one frostbite. Not much else is known about this champion, aside from her claims, like Potter's, that she did not enter the tournament. Malfoy even admitted that she tried to back out when her name was called. Whether that was nerves or a genuine disinterest in participating, this reporter is determined to discover.**

"Could be worse."

"Yeah, imagine what she'd've written if you hadn't threatened to sic Lucius on her." Hermione said.

"Imagine if she were good at her job, then she'd know I wouldn't ask Lucius for help if he were the only wizard with water in the middle of a drought."

"Wish I had a scary uncle I could use to get her to retract these lies." Harry grumbled.

"You've got a scary godfather, but I think it'd be a bigger story for Rita if you admitted you were in contact with him." said Callie. "Guess you're out of luck."

Hermione let out another 'harrumph' as Viktor Krum walked into the library. "He's  _always_ in here!" She whispered, annoyed.

"I don't see why that's a problem." Callie said, turning to look at him. "It's not like he's loud."

"He's not, but  _they_  are." Hermione groaned as a group of giggling girls followed Krum into the stacks, whispering excitedly.

"Okay. I can see that as a problem. In their defense, he's a  _really_  good Seeker."

"Oh, are you going to start drooling over him, too, now?" Hermione accused.

"Seekers aren't my type. I was a Beater, remember?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" Harry asked, but Hermione nodded.

"I get it." She said, knowingly.

"Nothing to get." Callie assured, standing to pick up her History book and roll up her scroll of parchment. "I'm going to get out of here before the drooling  _really_  starts."

~~

The next several weeks were full of people in the halls giving Harry grief about Rita Skeeter's lying quotes and offering him tissues. Callie had earned the nickname 'Snow Queen' which wasn't nearly so bad, and Fred helped her run with it by conjuring up some Charmed snow that didn't melt. He wanted her to use it for snowballs, but she sculpted it into a snow snake and animated it to slither after her like a pet. Fred wasn't as excited by the snake as he was on the idea of snowball fights in the hall, but he understood.

"I get it. Snakes are your thing. Slytherin student, heir of Slytherin, parselmouth. You couldn't use just  _some_  of it on a snowball, though? Give it to Peeves, have him toss it at Snape?"

"A: why would Peeves listen to me? He doesn't listen to anyone except the Bloody Baron. And B: Snape's not  _that_  bad."

"That's 'cause you're a Slytherin. If you were a Gryffindor, and you  _should've_  been a Gryffindor, you'd know how terrible he is."

"I'm his T.A., Freddie. I know how terrible he  _can_  be, but he's not always terrible. I mean-"

"Really? You're going to defend  _Snape_?"

Callie shrugged. "I don't know, Freddie. I just don't think he's-"

"If you are going to be ze Snow Queen, you are going to need a crown." Luc was smiling at her from across the Entrance hall, a shiny crown made of ice in his hands.

"Luc! I didn't think you were talking to me, anymore."

"I did not zink you were talking to me, ezer." Luc stepped toward her, smiling at her. "Nous n'avons pas parlé depuis que votre nom a été appelé." ["We haven't spoken since your name was called."]

"I was told to keep my distance since I'm a champion, now." Callie gestured at Fred, who had suddenly gone rigid and was standing up tall like he was trying to be taller than Luc Dupuis. "C'est mon meilleur ami, Fred." ["This is my best friend, Fred."]

"Ah, I know you. You are ze jokester. You 'ad a beard on 'alloween because you were too young to get past ze Age Line."

"He did look magnificent with a beard, though." Callie chuckled, a bit nervously. 

"And how old are you, then,  _Luc_?" said Fred, a bit of an edge to his question. 

"I turned seventeen a monz ago." Luc's eyes flicked back to Callie and he raised the crown slightly. "Autorise moi?" Callie held back a giggle as Luc put the crown on her head. "Parfait! [Perfect!] You look beautiful, Callie. A champion worzy of ze Triwizard Cup." 

"I told you, Luc. I didn't even want to play. I'm not looking to win, just trying not to die." She chuckled nervously again, and she looked between Luc and Fred. It was a weird feeling. This super nice and very attractive French boy of Apparating age who looked at her like she was gorgeous, standing with the prankster ginger that she'd spent three years wanting to love her, who was her best friend. "And thank you for what you said about the Triwizard Cup. I would think you'd be cheering on Fleur."

"Eh. Fleur is a- 'ow you say?- snob. I would razzer cheer for ze champion 'oo doesn' wan' to play. I 'ave to make it back to ze carriage, but... bon chance, ma petite reine de Neiges." [Good luck, my little Snow Queen."] Luc smiled and walked away, leaving Callie and Fred in the entrance hall.

" _Bon chance, ma petite raindy nage_." Fred mocked as Luc disappeared out the door.

Callie giggled. "That's not funny, Freddie."

"Then, why are you laughing?" Fred seemed to have relaxed exceptionally since Luc walked away. "And when did I become 'Freddie' to you? Only George has  _ever_  called me that."

"I dunno. Just-just like it." 

"Well, so do I. I'm gonna call you 'Cal', then."

"No one else does." She said, reverently.

"I just like it." He said, smiling at her. 

~~

When the third week of November came around, Harry made sure to remind her about Sirius and coming up to the Tower. "You going to Hogsmeade? Luc convinced Madame Maxime to let him go with me."

"Maybe. Probably not. I don't really want to get stared at. Obviously, you don't mind about people staring." Harry said, looking from the snow snake to the ice crown she'd been wearing daily for two weeks.

"They were gifts, Harry. I'm not going to leave them in the dorm. Those Slytherin girls are not trustworthy." Callie smiled. "Anyway, if you make it to Hogsmeade, I'll buy you a butterbeer."

"So, are you andLuc... you know?" Harry asked, as she started to walk away.

Callie bit her lip. "I don't know. I mean, we've been spending time together, he says he's gonna root for me instead of his own champion. He made one of those badges say 'Je soutiens la reine de neiges', 'I support the Snow Queen' and he's actually been wearing it. I hear Fleur hates him, now." She shrugged. "I think he likes me, but... what do I know, Harry?"

"You're still spending time with Fred and George, though, right?"

"Oh, I'm not going to forsake my friends for some dark-haired French boy with an amazing smile and gorgeous eyes who calls me his little Snow Queen. I mean, he's going back to Beauxbatons at the end of the year, right? Why would I throw away real and good friendship for him?"

"I'm sure you wouldn't." Harry smiled. "Whether I go to Hogsmeade, or not, be at the Pink Lady painting at 12:45."

Callie walked Hogsmeade with Luc, who looked snug in Callie's extra Hogwarts cloak. He insisted on buying her chocolate at Honeydukes and she insisted on buying him a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. "I like ze warm buttairbeer. We don't drink eet warm in France."

"It's good, isn't it? Cold for the Spring, warm for the Winter." Callie and Luc sat in the Three Broomsticks, laughing and enjoying themselves when George and Fred came into the bar. The twins waved at her, but didn't come over to see her. They just sat at a table and whispered together, while staring at Ludo Bagman, who was having a tense moment with a few goblins.

"I can't believe you are friends wiz zem." Luc said, behind the warm mug.

"What?" She turned to look at Fred and George.

"Ze jokesters. Zey are so uncultured, zink everyzing is a joke."

Callie tried not to feel offended on their behalf. Luc wasn't trying to be rude. "Well, what is life if you can't laugh? They're good people."

"I jus' zink you are... better zan zem. Zey are poor and uncultured. You are... gorgeous and intelligent and you come from money." 

"I don't care about money, Luc. Wealth is nothing." She shook her head and took another drink of her butterbeer. "The twins were the only friends I had when I got to Hogwarts. They didn't care who my father was, or the fact that I was Sorted into a completely different House. They think I'm brilliant and I think they're funny. So... lay off of ze jokesters."

The exchange left her with a sour feeling, so she excused herself and went back to Hogwarts. She took a short nap in the Slytherin dorms and woke at almost midnight. She looked around at the three other girls in her dorm, then turned into Kiki and went out the window. She was hoping to get some climbing time done before she had to go sneak into Gryffindor Tower. As she was climbing the trees, she noticed Hagrid walking along the perimeter of the woods with Madame Maxime, looking around suspiciously. Curiosity drove her to follow them and she was glad she did, as she followed, jumping from tree to tree, to an area so far away from the castle that she couldn't see it anymore. A deafening roar made her Capuchin ears ring and she almost fell off of the tree branch she was grasping. She climbed up higher in the tree and looked across to see five enormous, vicious-looking dragons rearing onto their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood. They were roaring and snorting, jets of flame shooting into the dark sky. 

There were at least 40 wizards wrangling them, seven or eight to each dragon. It took all of the wizards using  _stupefy_  to stun the dragons and they all fell over onto their bellies. Callie watched from her tree as Hagrid and Maxime walked up to the fence and started talking to someone who looked vaguely familiar. As they spoke, Callie realized from his hair and freckles, that he must've been Charlie Weasley, who she got a bit of a glimpse at during the Quidditch World Cup. She couldn't hear most of their conversation from her place so far away, but she heard keywords, 'Horntail', 'Welsh Green', 'Swedish', 'Hebridean' and 'Fireball' jumped out at her and she filed them away so that she could look them up when she got back to the dorm. For now, she needed to get back to the castle so she could get to Gryffindor Tower. 

When she made it to the Fat Lady, Kiki became Callie and leaned against the wall, waiting for Harry. She heard his heavy breathing before she saw him and he pulled the invisibility cloak off right in front of her. "The first task is-" She started, but Harry interrupted.

"Dragons, I know! Hagrid showed me. How'd you find out?"

"I told you that the Forbidden Forest is like a second home to me Harry. You think I didn't notice Charlie Weasley bringing in 5 dragons on the bloody outskirts?"

"So you just saw them from afar?" Harry asked before turning to the painting. "Balderdash."

"If you say so." The sleeping painting muttered, but she swung open and they climbed in through the passage on the other side.

"Yeah, way afar, but I heard them and I saw the fire." 

"Here, take this just in case someone comes down to the Common Room." Harry handed her the Invisibility Cloak as they rushed for the fire. "They were so vicious up close. Charlie said we just need to get past them but how are we going to do that? I just don't... whoever's trying to kill us, think they're gonna get their wish."

"Not necessarily. I mean, you beat a basilisk two years ago, can't be much different." Callie whispered. 

"The basilisk didn't spit fire or have a tail full of spikes."

"No, just a mouthful of super poisonous fangs."

"Which would have killed me if Fawkes hadn't been there to cry on me. Come on, the fire's over here."

Callie and Harry threw themselves into the armchairs next to the fireplace and took steadying breaths. They looked at each other, then back at the flames and they both jumped. Sirius' head was sitting in the fire. They both scrambled out of their chairs and crouched down next to the fire. Sirius looked much different than he had last time they'd seen him, his hair much shorter, and his face had taken on a more full look and he looked a lot younger, much closer to her parents' ages. "Melanie, what are you doing in Gryffindor Tower again?"

"Harry invited me. Since we're in the same boat." 

Harry turned to her. " _Again_?"

Callie chuckled, nervously. "Um... well, Sirius needed to get into the dorms to look for Pettigrew, so I... I stole Neville's list of passwords."

" _You_  stole the passwords? But how'd you get in here in the first place?" Harry asked.

"I overheard one from Fred and George complaining about Cadogan. I didn't know when it was going to be changed, so I stole Neville's list for him."

Harry looked at her with wide eyes for a minute before turning to Sirius. "Sirius, how're you doing?"

"Never mind me, how are you?" 

"I'm... terrible. No one believes us that we didn't put our names in, not even Ron, and they're all being horrible... to me especially, and then that Rita Skeeter woman wrote that article and it was all lies and now people think I'm some weak little boy who breaks down crying over my parents all the time! Callie's only got called 'Snow Queen' and she thinks it's nice, but I think it's horrible because it's not who we are. And I can't walk down a corridor without being stared at or criticized or sneered at. The worst is Ron, though, because he's my best friend and he's supposed to have my back and now, because he's jealous, he won't even talk to me! He really thinks I figured out how to get my name in the Goblet, that I figured out how to trick the Goblet of Fire into picking me and he's mad that I didn't tell him how to do it so that he could put his name in, too. He's jealous because I'm famous, but I don't want to be famous. I don't want people staring at me, staring at my scar, reminding me all the time about what happened to my parents... He's jealous of me for things that I  _hate_. I hate this whole situation and now Hagrid's just shown me what's coming in the first task, and it's dragons, Sirius, and we're goners." 

"Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we'll get to that in a minute- I haven't got long here... I've broken into a Wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time. There are things I need to warn you both about."

"What?"

"Karkaroff. Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"

"My father's followers." Callie provided.

"I know that. He- what?" Harry stammered.

"He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year- to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place."

"Karkaroff got released? Why did they release him?"

"He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic. He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names... he put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place... He's not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."

"Okay." Harry breathed out slowly.

"Are you saying Karkaroff put our names in the goblet? Because if he did, he's a really good actor." Callie said.

"He seemed really furious about it. He wanted to stop us from competing."

"We know he's a good actor because he convinced the Ministry of Magic to set him free, didn't he? Now I've been keeping an eye on the  _Daily Prophet_ , Harry-"

"You and the rest of the world."

"-and reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman's article last month, Moody was attacked the night before he started at Hogwarts. Yes, I know she says it was a false alarm but I don't think so, somehow. I think someone tried to stop him from getting to Hogwarts. I think someone knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. And no one's going to look into it too closely; Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often. But that doesn't mean he can't still spot the real thing. Moody was the best Auror the Ministry ever had."

"So... what are you saying? Karkaroff's trying to kill us? But- why?" Harry asked.

"I've been hearing some very strange things... The Death Eaters seem to be a bit more active than usual lately. They showed themselves at the Quidditch World Cup, didn't they? Someone set off the Dark Mark... and then- did you hear about the Ministry witch who's gone missing?"

"Bertha Jorkins?" Harry said.

"Who's Bertha Jorkins?" 

"Works for Ludo Bagman." Harry answered.

"Exactly... she disappeared in Albania, and that's definitely where Voldemort was rumored to be last... and she would have known the Triwizard Tournament was coming up, wouldn't she?"

"Yeah, but... it's not very likely she'd have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?" said Harry.

"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins. She was at Hogwarts when I was, the same year as your mother, Melanie. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It's not a good combination. I'd say she'd be very easy to lure into a trap."

"So... so Voldemort could have found out about the tournament? Is that what you mean? You think Karkaroff might be here on his orders?"

"I don't know. I just don't know... Karkaroff doesn't strike me as the type who'd go back to Voldemort unless he knew Voldemort was powerful enough to protect him. But whoever put your names in that goblet did it for a reason, and I can't help thinking the tournament would be a very good way to attack you and make it look like an accident."

"Looks like a really good plan from where I'm standing. They'll just have to stand back and let the dragons do their stuff."

"Right, these dragons. There's a way. Don't be tempted to try a Stunning Spell- dragons are strong and too powerfully magical to be knocked out by a single Stunner, you need about half a dozen wizards at a time to overcome a dragon-"

"Yeah, I know, I just saw."

"But you can do it alone. There is a way, and a simple spell's all you need. Just-"

Harry put a hand up to silence him. Someone was coming down to the Common Room. "Go!  _Go!_ " He hissed, grabbing his cloak and tossing it over Callie's head as he stood. "Go back to your dorm. You can give it back tomorrow." He whispered. Callie was able to see Ron coming down the stairs as she moved toward the entrance behind the painting.

~~

Callie spent Sunday reading through every bit of information she could find on dragons. The dragons out on the grounds were a Chinese Fireball, a Hungarian Horntail, a Common Welsh Green, a Swedish Short-Snout, and a Hebridean Black. They were all terrible. She read through hundreds of accounts of dragon fights, but came down with no ideas of how to deal with one. ' _Something simple_.' went through her head on repeat.

It hit her like a ton of bricks, on Monday night as she tried to get food down her throat and into her twisted stomach. She shot out of her seat and rushed out of the Great Hall, Luc calling after her like he was concerned for her. She ran down to the dungeons and into Snape's office. "Miss Malfoy, why are you not at dinner?" He said, looking up from his cauldron.

"I had an idea. The first task is dragons, right, and I was thinking of how to get past one and-"

"How do you know what the first task is?" 

"Everyone does! I saw them, myself; 5 great dragons and Harry was told that we have to get past them somehow, not  _defeat_  them, thankfully, but I've been struggling to figure out how to do even that and I was just wondering- if I do it in pieces, do you think I could use  _Immobulus_ on something that big?"

Snape blinked at her for a few moments before taking a deep breath. "You'd need to work quickly, starting at the tail, then the neck and mouth, finally the legs." 

"So, it  _could_  work? Brilliant. I'll tell Harry."

"You can not tell Potter!" Snape growled. "If you go into the first task with the exact same strategy, people will think you are working together and they will have no doubts that the two of you put your names in the Goblet of Fire together. Potter will figure out his own way to deal with a dragon."

"Fine. I suppose you're right. I don't know if he can do that charm as well as I can, anyway."

Snape looked down at his cauldron, then waved his wand over it. "Keep an eye out for Karkaroff." He said it like it was just a throwaway comment and he didn't look at her as he said it. 

"Why? Recognize him from your Death Eater days? Think maybe he's the one put our names in?" 

"You could tell with him, as well?" Snape asked.

"I could tell with all of you. Except the rat, but maybe that's just because he was in Animagus form."

"He's not admitted to putting your name in. I doubt he will. But he knows who you are, so you need to watch for him."

"Will you tell me? Please, will you finally tell me, sir? I've been waiting years and I might die tomorrow, so..."

Snape sighed and turned to her. "If I tell you, you must keep it secret. Tell no one." Callie nodded her assent. "I was a true believer. I thought, because of my interactions with Muggles, that they were all... weak and nasty. I agreed with the Dark Lord's plans, but then... I overheard a prophecy, part of one, in a tavern. It said a boy was born to a couple who had defied the Dark Lord three times and survived, born at the end of July, and that he would be the one who could stop the Dark Lord. There were two boys who fit the prophesy; Longbottom and Potter. Your father decided that it was Potter, because they were both half-bloods. That is when I went to Dumbledore. I knew he was working against the Dark Lord and I thought he'd be able to help me save the Potters."

"Why would you-"

"Lily and I grew up together." He said, dismissively. "She didn't deserve what the Dark Lord did to her, just because of some prophesy I brought to him. Albus insisted I become a spy, a double agent for Dumbledore, feeding him information about your father's whereabouts and actions. It kept me from Azkaban, without my having to depose myself in front of the Wizengamot."

"So, you... you  _stopped_  being a Death Eater?"

"Not according to the Dark Lord. I remained loyal to his death, or rather his defeat. Dumbledore feared he would return and it seems he was right. If ever he truly returns, I will need to return, as well."

Callie blinked at him. "And that's why I needed to be an Occlumens before you'd tell me. He's been in my head before and if he got in again and saw that you were a spy-"

"I wouldn't last very long in his service, would I?"

"Right. Well. Guess it makes sense that you're so mean to Harry, now, doesn't it? Keep your cover."

"No, I detest that boy. Looks and acts just like his father." 

"He's got his mother's eyes, though."

"Yes... he does." Snape said, wistfully. He cleared his throat, then sighed. "Karkaroff is an enemy of the Death Eaters. He sold many of them out to the Wizengamot, got them sent to Azkaban. If he is the one who put your names in the goblet, he's attempting to kill you and Harry to get back in the graces of the other Death Eaters before the Dark Lord returns."

"Because I'm a disgrace to his bloodline?"

"You're a disgrace to both bloodlines, but Miranda wouldn't have had it any other way. Just be careful, Miss Malfoy. Dragons aren't to be treated lightly."

"Tail, neck, head, legs. I got this, and your secret is safe with me, Professor Snape."


	6. First Task and First Kiss

Callie didn't exactly know how to go about a morning of classes when she knew she'd be going against a dragon in a few hours time. The day seemed to drag in spots and speed along in others, but when she sat down to eat her food, stomach sour with nerves even though she had a plan, it was absolutely no time before Snape walked up to her. "It's time." 

As she walked out of the Great Hall with her head of house, Callie was breathing in and out through her nose, trying to keep herself from getting sick. She could see Harry and Professor McGonagall following behind them as they walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest toward where the dragons were. "Just don't panic and you'll be fine, Calidara." It was different to hear Snape trying to be soothing. It made her worry more. "There are wizards waiting to help if things go wrong, if you get hurt, but you have a solid plan, so this won't be a problem for you. You're an incredible witch."

"Thank you, professor, but... you complimenting me just makes me feel  _more_  like I'm about to die."

"Hn." He gave a little chuckle noise as they approached a large tent. "Bagman is inside there with the other champions. He'll explain what you need to do next. Good luck, Miss Malfoy."

"Thank you, Professor Snape." She said as she entered the tent. Cedric looked okay, but Fleur looked pale and upset, and Krum looked surlier than normal. When Harry walked into the tent behind her, she noticed a paleness to his cheeks, too. 

"Harry! Callie! Good-o!" Bagman said, looking around. "Come in, come in, make yourselves at home."

"Did figure anything out?" Callie whispered to Harry as she sat down.

"Yeah, I'm gonna play to my strengths. You?"

"Not sure I have many strengths, but I've got an idea." She winked at him as Bagman started talking, saying they were going to be picking a model of what they were about to face out of a purple bag and then they were going to have to collect a golden egg. 

"Ladies first." Bagman said, holding the bag out between Callie and Fleur.

Callie stepped back and gestured to the older witch. "L'âge avant la belle." ["Age before beauty."] Fleur glared at her, but a bit of color came back to her cheeks as she put her hand into the bag. She pulled out a perfect model of a Common Welsh Green, with a number 3 around its neck. Callie went next, pulling out a model of the Hebridean Black with a number 2 tag. Krum pulled the Chinese Fireball with a number 4 and Cedric grabbed the Swedish Short-Snout with a number 1. Which left Harry to pull the Hungarian Horntail with the number 5 tag on its neck. They all stared at their models for a few moments before Harry walked out with Bagman. With the model in her hand, her mind went over what she'd read about the Hebridean Black:

**_It has dark rough scales, ridges along its back, and a tail tipped with an arrow-shaped spike. The Hebridean Black has brilliant purple eyes and can grow to be up to thirty feet long. Its favourite food is deer, although it has been known to carry off cows._ **

**_The Hebridean Black is more aggressive than the other dragon native to the British Isles, the Common Welsh Green, and thus requires a territory of as much as one hundred square miles each. The MacFusty clan take responsibility for the dragons, and have so done for centuries._ **

30 foot long would be a problem, but she'd hit the tail then the neck, then the head, then- She sighed, looking from her model to her wand. She was turning green as Cedric walked out of the tent. She wasn't certain she could actually handle this. She wasn't certain she was going to make it out of the tent without getting sick. Fleur was pacing and Krum was staring at the ground and Harry just seemed to be watching everyone and as the commentary started, Callie was certain she was about to die. A scream of the crowd let her know that Cedric had completed the task and Bagman announced they were showing the judgement. Then Ludo called her name and she stood. Her feet felt like they were made of lead and tied to the bottom of her legs with string. They felt like they were going to fall off if she moved too fast. She took a deep breath and clutched her wand, stepping out of the tent and toward the enclosure.

The Hebridean Black was on the far side of the enclosure lying protectively over a clutch of eggs. The gold one was laying on the edge of the nest, closest to Callie. The crowd erupted as she made it into the enclosure. "Oh, bloody hell." She whispered, as her heart jumped into her throat. She took a step forward and tried to breath. 

"She's taking her time on the approach, isn't she?" Bagman commented. 

Callie threw her left hand up with two fingers and moved forward again, fueled a bit by her anger at his comment. She pointed her wand at the dragon's sweeping tail and roaring " _Immobulus!_ "

"Terribly simple, don't you think?" said Bagman as its tail stopped sweeping and she took another step, pointing at the dragon's neck, then its head, and front legs, taking a step and shouting " _Immobulus!_ " with each move. When all that was left to move on the dragon was its hind legs with no help from its other parts, Callie ran forward and grabbed the egg as it scratched its back legs against the ground. The crowd roared behind her as she turned and ran back for the entrance. "Will you look at that? Simple works, Ladies and Gentlemen! Simple  _works_! A bit slow to start, that's gonna cost her a bit on points, but let's see what the judges have to say on that."

Madam Pomfrey pulled her into a tent off to the side and spent several minutes checking her for burns and scratches. "I'm fine, Madam Pomfrey. Promise." 

"Dragons. You went against a dragon without a scratch?"

"I used the Freezing Charm on it."

"A dragon? You used a freezing charm on a dragon?" Poppy Pomfrey's eyes grew three times as big as she said the words.

"Well, I used it on several distinct parts of the dragon. Think I might get points off because it was so simple. Ludo Bagman made it seem like I went too simple."

"Darling girl, the fact that you were able to take a simple freezing charm and subdue a dragon with it? That is an amazing feat."

Callie blushed and looked down. "Thank you, Madam Pomfrey."

"All right. I believe you are good to go back to get your score."

Madame Maxime looked a bit upset as she shot a 9 from the end of her wand, then Dumbledore raised his wand and a 10 shot from the end of his. Ludo Bagman gave her a 6, probably because it was not-so-entertaining, and Mr. Crouch gave her an 8 and Karkaroff glowered as he shot a 6 into the air. "That's not bad!" She whispered to herself, before being pulled away. Once Fleur, Krum and Harry had made it through their trials, they were all brought back to the Champions tent. "Harry, that was amazing! I should've known what you meant by playing to your strengths! That was some fine flying!"

"Thanks! You did well, too. You're just one point under me and Krum! I can't believe a Freezing Charm worked on a dragon!"

"Play to  _my_ strengths, that's Charms or Potions and I didn't think there was an anti-dragon potion in my books. I can't believe we all just beat dragons!" 

Bagman came in and congratulated everyone, smiling broadly. "Now, just a few quick words. You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine in the morning of February the twenty-fourth- but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open... see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg- because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"

Callie and Harry walked out excitedly and Ron was waiting for Harry outside. "Mortal danger brought the Hardy Boys back together, huh?" 

"Do you mind, Callie? We haven't talked since Halloween, so..." Ron tapered off, but Callie understood. 

"Fine by me. I've gotta go get-"

"Félicitations, Callie!" ["Congratulations, Callie!"] Luc ran up from behind Harry and put his arms around her. "You did an amazink job! You are ze only one who got ze egg wizout getting burned or scratched, and you looked gorgeous doing it!"

Callie blushed as he hugged her and Harry and Ron stared. "Luc, you're embarrassing me."

"I'm not meaning to." said Luc, pulling back. "I am just so excited for you! We must celebrate! Butterbeers all around, maybe a bit of ze single malt."

"Oh, I don't need any of that. I'm actually really looking forward to just-"

"Callie!" Fred ran at her full speed and came to a skidding stop in front of her and Luc. "You just won me 10 Galleons. Knew you wouldn't let me down!"

"I'm in third place. You bet on me being third?" Callie asked, trying to not be offended. 

"I knew that, even if you weren't trying to win, you wouldn't be able to fail so hard that you'd lose. Even trying to just barely get by, you were bound to get by in the middle. Imagine if you were actually  _trying_  to win." Fred looked over at Luc, seeming to just notice that the Frenchman was embracing the blond girl. "See I'm not the first one to offer congratulations."

"I'm sorry you are too late, Fred Weazy, we are about to go 'ave a drink togezzer. Maybe tomorrow you can provide 'er a proper félicitations."

Fred looked slightly put out about it. "Right. Gotta party with my boy, Harry, tonight, anyway. It's a Gryffindor thing."

Callie followed Luc out to the Black Lake, feeling a bit sad that Fred was with Harry, where they sat and drank warm butterbeer and Luc made Callie forget that she was upset that Fred wasn't around. As the sun started to go down, Luc walked Callie up the stairs to the huge wooden door into the castle and as she said 'Bon nuit', he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. She was caught off guard by the kiss, but it wasn't unpleasant, especially once she parted her lips and he pushed his tongue into her mouth. He pulled back, smiling down at her look of breathless rapture. "Bon nuit, ma petite reine de Neiges." ["Good night, my little Snow Queen."]

"Bon nuit, Luc Dupuis." She said, going into the castle and heading for the Slytherin Common Room. The Slytherins had obviously been partying for a couple hours by then and she didn't let it bug her that these people who usually snarled at her were congratulating her as she walked through the crowd. She'd just had her first kiss and it had been exactly as amazing as she'd imagined.

"Well, don't you look happy." Draco sneered.

"I didn't think you knew what happy looked like, cousin. You've definitely never seen it on me." said Callie, smirking as she skipped up the steps to the dorms. She wasn't tired, probably wouldn't be able to sleep for hours, but she was ready to just close the canopy curtains on her bed and block out everything else.

~~

Callie felt a bit like she was floating the next morning. She'd defeated a dragon. She wasn't in last place in the tournament and Luc Dupuis, dark-haired French 17 year old with the vivid blue eyes, had graced her with her first kiss. When she floated into the Great Hall, however, she was shot down. Her eyes fell on Fred and she was hit with a pang of sadness. She'd wanted her first kiss to be with the ginger. She tried to talk herself out of feeling sad or guilty, telling herself Fred obviously didn't like her like that. In four years, he'd never said anything or done anything to say he might like her as anything more than a friend. But when Fred waved at her with a big smile on his face and a mouth full of scrambled eggs, she couldn't deny the guilt. 

_*But why? Why should I feel guilty? I deserve to be happy, right? Luc is sweet to me and I like him and he likes me.*_

Callie waved back at Fred as she sat down. Fred walked over and stood behind her. "Hey. After classes are over, you wanna celebrate your victory?"

"It wasn't much of a victory, was it? Not very entertaining, third place performance." said Callie, smiling. 

"One point behind the first place duo? Seems a victory to me. Come on, we'll set off some fireworks, eat some pilfered pastries, I got a bit of firewhiskey I've been hiding in my trunk, stole it from Filch last year... we could have an amazing-"

"We have class tomorrow, too, Freddie. Getting pissed on firewhiskey is not recommended on a school night."

Fred looked a bit put out, but smiled anyway. "So, we'll put the firewhiskey off 'til the weekend. It'll be better that way, anyway. We can take it to the Forbidden Forest and-"

"Forbidden Forest is forbidden, Freddie." Callie said, matter-of-factly. Fred's smile faltered, but Callie smiled. "I'm joking. I love the Forbidden Forest! Definitely this weekend... maybe not so much of the firewhiskey. I've never-"

"Oh, it's great stuff. But you've never had any, so we'll go easy on it. Don't have a whole bunch anyway."

~~

Thursday morning, Professor McGonagall took time out of the end of the lesson to let the Slytherin Fourth years know that the Yule Ball was approaching. "Dress robes will be worn and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then,  the Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to let our hair down, but that does  _not_  mean that we will be relaxing our standards of behavior we expect from Hogwarts students." 

The bell rang and everyone got up to leave, but McGonagall stopped her. "Miss Malfoy, the champions and their dance partners traditionally open the ball."

"What?"

"You dance the first dance with your dance partners, so make sure you get one." Callie nodded and walked out of the room. She went to the library, hoping for some quiet to think through the fact that she'd be forced to dance in front of half of the school. She tucked into a corner and opened a book. When the twins, Lee Jordan, Harry and Ron walked in with Hermione leading the way, Callie looked up briefly and waved before looking back down at her Charms textbook. 

A crumpled up piece of paper hit her book, causing her to look up and scan the library. Fred waved at her before beginning a pantomime while mouthing the words, "Will you go to the ball with me?" complete with mimed dancing. Her heart rate doubled but she just shrugged and nodded. 

"You know we'll have to dance." She said after they'd as they walked toward the Great Hall. "In front of people."

"Yeah. That's what you do at balls, right?"

"No, I mean..." She stopped and grabbed his hand, forcing him to turn. "I'm one of the champions. The champions start the first dance, a lively waltz."

"Don't worry, Cal. I won't embarrass you."

"Don't know what I was worried about. You thrive as the center of attention."

"Says the girl who put her name in the Goblet of Fire."

Callie punched Fred's shoulder as hard as she could. "I did  _not_! I'm not going to have this fight with you, again! If I knew how to get past the age line, I would have  _told_ you!"

Fred laughed. "I know you didn't!" He chuckled. "I know you would have told me, and I would've told you."

She rolled her eyes. "Freddie, I didn't want to participate. If it were up to me and Harry, it'd just be a  _Tri_ wizard Tournament. Like it's supposed to be."

~~

Callie stared at the dress on the hanger for what seemed like an hour. Narcissa had sent it by owl with her Firebolt broom. It was green and fluffy with green puffs around the neckline and, in many ways, hideous. "Is there a tailor in Hogsmeade?" She called over her shoulder to any girl that would hear her. 

"Yeah, but they're swamped with orders already. Best to wear what you have." An Irish girl in year five said.

"Excuse you!" She growled. "I'm a Malfoy and a Triwizard Champion. I am  _not_ going to the ball looking like a fluffy cucumber. Can't believe Aunt Narcissa thought I would like this. I'll alter it myself if I can't get the tailor to." She said, taking her wand out and grabbing a fistful of fabric.

~~

Saturday morning, Luc walked up to her with a smile. "Mademoiselle Malfoy, vous allez à Bal de Noël avec moi?" ["Miss Malfoy, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"]

Callie's face fell. She'd been so excited to go to the ball with Fred that she'd forgotten about Luc. "Je suis vraiment désolé, Luc. [I'm very sorry, Luc.] Fred already asked me."

"I zought 'e was just a friend." His face looked a mix between angry and maybe a little worried? That was a weird thing to have on his face.

"He  _is_ , but he's a friend who asked first. He asked two days ago." 

"I zought you liked me. We are so good togezzer and you are forsaking me for ze jokester?"

"I promise I'll save you a dance. Fred'll probably be too busy causing havoc by ten o'clock to dance much with me." Callie stood, putting her hand gingerly on Luc's chest. "Je suis désolé. I didn't even consider that you might want to take me to the Ball."

"Ah, so ze kissing means nozing to you?" 

Callie blushed, turning bright red as her schoolmates turned to look at her. "Of course not, Luc! It's just- Fred asked first. That's all, mon cher. Je promets de danser avec toi. J'aime t'embrasser! Vous étiez magistral. S'il vous plaît ne soyez pas en colère contre moi." ["I promise to dance with you. I love kissing you! You were brilliant. Please do not be mad at me."]

Luc's eyes sparkled with anger, but he sighed and covered her hand on his chest. "Je ne suis pas en colère avec toi, Callie. Je pense que je risque de tomber amoureux de toi." ["I am not angry with you, Callie. I think I might be falling in love with you."] He bent down and kissed her cheek. "Don't let me 'it ze ground, eh?" He smiled slightly and walked out of the Great Hall while everyone stared at her.

"Did he just say-" Hermione's voice called Callie's attention to the Gryffindor table. Fred wasn't at the table, anymore, but George, Harry, Ron and Hermione were all staring at her with wide eyes. "Did he say he's falling for you?"

Callie's blush went darker and she pushed her hair out of her face. "He's French. They're passionate... and prone to exaggeration."

"And you kissed him?" Harry asked.

" _He_ kissed me. And it was sweet. Am I not allowed to have sweetness?" She spat.

"But it's obvious that you like-" Hermione started, but Callie stomped away from her mid-sentence.

Fred was sitting outside the entrance to the kitchens, a stack of biscuits in front of him on a napkin. "So, you dumping me for the frog?"

"Of course not. I said I'd go with you and I'm not going to be swayed from that. I know how you and your mum are looking forward to you being part of the opening of the Ball."

"That's not why I asked you to the Ball, Cal." 

"I know. You didn't know about the first dance when you asked me." She took a biscuit off of the stack and took a bite. "So, when did you leave the Great Hall? Before or after I started speaking in French to keep the whole hall from hearing my business?"

"Pretty sure you failed at that. The whole school knows your business. So, he a good kisser? I mean, the French perfected the art, didn't they?" He said it like a joke but Callie felt animus under the words.

"I'm not answering that." She said around a mouthful of biscuit.

"So, bad, then? I get it. Some blokes just don't know how to use their tongue."

"Haha." She said, sarcastically. "You tell your mum to get you some nice black dress robes. I'm putting a lot of effort into fixing the dress Narcissa sent me, so you better make sure your robes look just as good as mine, eh?" She stood and Fred nodded at her.

"If you want to take the bad French kisser, you can." He muttered.

"I already told both of you, I'm your date for the Ball, Freddie. I owe him a dance, but other than that, I'm yours."


	7. The Yule Ball

"I don't understand it." Hermione said in Potions the next week. She'd shown up early, seemingly just to talk to Callie.

"Well, that's news worthy of Rita Skeeter; Hermione Granger doesn't understand something." Callie joked.

"You obviously like Fred. Why would you be snogging Luc Dupuis?" Hermione whispered.

"Fred obviously thinks of  _me_  as just a friend. What do you want me to say, Hermione? I..." She looked around to make sure no one was in the classroom. "I can't have Fred. Luc is sweet. He's nice to me and he's gorgeous. Why shouldn't I snog him?"

"But Fred's a better-"

"Freddie's a great friend but he doesn't fancy me. Luc  _does_."

"I just don't trust him, Callie." 

Calidara sighed and shook her head. "You know, it might seem crazy to you that an attractive man of means would want anything to do with me, but..."

"That's not crazy. I mean, look at me. Viktor Krum asked me. A famous, wealthy-" Hermione shook her head at herself. "But it doesn't feel right, what's happening with Luc. It just seems wrong to me. Don't you have any doubts about it?"

Callie looked down. "I get nervous when good things happen, but I don't think that's a reflection on Luc. I think it's a reflection on me."

"Just promise that you'll be aware of Luc, of everything he's doing."

"Hermione, it's not like he's a Death Eater or something. He's just a wealthy pure-blood wizard from Marseilles who acts a little like he's better than everyone. He's a bit elitist, but so are all the rest of these Beauxbatons students."

"I'm just worried about you, you know? Promise that you'll be careful with this, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks for being worried. And good job bagging Krum. There'll be a whole bunch of girls envious of you."

Hermione blushed deeply at that.

~~

As they got closer to Christmas, everyone went nuts trying to get dates for the Yule Ball and rumors went around the school about the dance. Callie had finally managed to turn her dress robes into something worth wearing and had tucked them into the back of her wardrobe so that they wouldn't be messed up and sent Narcissa a letter saying she needed size 4.5 shoes that she could dance in. It was hard to balance her relationship with Luc against her friendships with Fred and George and Ron, as Luc kept making little disparaging comments about the Weasleys being poor and all of them working for the Ministry instead of trying to make real money. Callie liked that Luc liked her, but the more time she spent with him, the more weekends spent snogging by the Black Lake, the more she wished he was Fred.

It was one of those days lying by the loch that she got tired of snogging the older boy and rolled into the lake. She pretended it was a playful joke but really she just wanted to get away from him. As she was under the water, listening to the distorted sounds of Luc calling after her, she had a lightbulb moment. She surfaced and took a deep breath. "It'd sound different underwater!" She exclaimed.

"Quoi?" ["What?"]

She rushed out of the loch and ran for the castle, her clothes dripping water. "Different wavelengths of sound! The screaming would sound different underwater. I need to get my egg! I'll be right back!" She ran through the corridors, slipping on the marble staircase, but grabbing the banister to save herself from falling, on the way back out. She jumped into the water and went underneath with the egg, and opened it. A chorus of eerie voices sang to her. 

_"Come seek us where our voices sound,  
_

_We cannot sing above the ground,_

_And while you're searching, ponder this:_

_We've taken what you'll sorely miss,_

_An hour long you'll have to look,_

_And to recover what we took,_

_But past an hour- the prospect's black,_

_Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."_

Callie popped out of the loch with her egg, fastening it back before pulling it up out of the water. "Did eet work?" Luc asked.

"Oui! It's a song." She said, rolling the egg onto the shore and wiping the water out of her eyes. "I've figured it out. Luc, I've figured out the egg. Now, I've just got to figure out what the song means and I'm golden."

"What did ze song say?" Callie recited the song from memory to a nodding Luc. "Are zere merfolk in ze Black Lake?"

"Yes, there are. So... they're going to take something of mine that I'll miss, and I'll have one hour to find it and get it back or it's gone forever. Well that's bleak."

"But you 'ave figured eet out! Ze challenge ees to stay under ze water for an 'our. 'ow will you do eet?"

"I don't know. I've got plenty of time to figure it out, though, so... That's a load off now." Callie threw herself on the shore of the lake and sighed, looking up at the sky. "Wonder if the others have figured out the egg, yet?"

"Fleur 'asn't." Luc said, leaning over her to obscure her view of the sky and smiling down at her. "You are gorgeous even soaked to ze bone from ze lake." 

"Merci, Luc, but it is very cold out here and I'm going to have to go get changed. I will see you tomorrow?"

"But of course. You 'ave a wonderful night, ma petite re-"

"Bon nuit, Luc." ["Good night, Luc."] Callie cut him off as she jumped up and ran into the castle with her egg in her arms.

~~

On Christmas morning, Callie woke to a dozen gifts, most from her aunt and uncle, which she threw in her trunk and ignored. She had a book on Quidditch from Hermione, a pack of Dungbombs from Ron, a box of fireworks from George, a box of chocolate frogs from Harry and a small gold heart necklace from Luc. The last gift she opened was a long white box from Fred. In it was a set of hair sticks, made of a dark wood, carved into the shape of snakes. They were beautiful and she found herself lost in the details of scales on the snakes' backs. She immediately twisted her hair up with them and looked in the mirror. It looked a million times better than her ice crown, which had been left in her trunk for a while.

She went down to the Great Hall for breakfast and thanked everyone for their gifts before moving to Fred and hugging him. "These are amazing, Freddie." 

"Those aren't amazing. You gave me your bloody Firebolt! These are nothing in comparison." 

"Rather that broom was in your hands than sitting at the manor collecting dust. But these are gorgeous. I'm gonna wear them tonight."

"Good. I think they look marvelous on you." Fred said, smiling.

"I can't believe you gave him a Firebolt and you only gave me a Sugar Quill and a bag of Bertie Botts'. I see who the favorite is." George complained.

Callie could feel her cheeks turn pink. "Well, Fred's the one I offered it to first. He's the one I told about it first, you know? And he's-"

"I'm just messing with you. Don't be so touchy. He'll just have to share it with me. We  _are_  twins." 

Callie chuckled and bid them all goodbye before heading over to the Slytherin table. That night, she spent two and a half hours preparing herself for the Ball, putting forth extra care to twist her white hair up with the dark snake hair sticks, and putting on her gown, which was no longer puffy or green. It was elegant and perfect with lace and tulle. It was backless but the straps were thick enough to support it and hold it up.  She'd dyed it with a special charmed dye she'd developed with Professor Flitwick, which slowly changed from one color to another, cycling through all of her favorite colors. Her shoes were three inches and they'd been dipped in the same dye. 

Her hair was perfect, her make-up meticulously applied, she looked in her mirror and she thought she looked just fine... but she was nervous.

She was nervous about walking into the Entrance Hall and seeing Fred Weasley in the dress robes Molly Weasley sent after the twins wrote her to say Fred would be taking one of the Triwizard Champions to the Yule Ball. Callie imagined Mrs. Weasley had spent a good amount of time worrying about how to pay for it before an owl showed up with ten Galleons and a note thanking her for her contribution to  _Witch Weekly_ 's Tidy-up Spell of the Month. Mrs. Weasley likely dithered about not remembering having entered a spell in the Tidy-up Spell of the Month, because she hadn't, but then used her winnings to get Fred new dress robes. They were sure to be very nice and Callie didn't mind using subterfuge to help out a family who was too proud to ask for it. 

She was nervous about dancing in front of the majority of the school and she was nervous about Luc being mad at her, but as she walked up the stairs from the dungeons and her eyes fell on Fred Weasley in a set of perfectly-tailored black dress robes with a gold button-up shirt, her nervousness disappeared. "I thought we were meeting in the Entrance Hall."

"I thought you might want an escort up all these stairs. You look amazing, like completely bloody brilliant." Fred offered her his arm. 

"You look great, too. Your mum is damn good at picking clothes, isn't she?" 

"When she's got some gold to spare, yeah. Your dress is wicked. What color is that?"

"Purple, lilac, blue, and red. It's a charmed dye. It was an ugly green when I got it." She said, as Fred helped her up the stairs into the Entrance Hall.

"Well, it looks amazing on you and those hair sticks are a perfect finish."

"You're going to make me blush, Freddie."

"Someone ought to." He muttered as he and Callie came to a stop outside of the giant doors into the Great Hall. 

"Champions over here, please!" McGonagall called and they walked over to her. She said that the champions were going to have to wait to go in until all of the other students had been seated. Harry and Parvati Patil smiled at them and Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang nodded at them. The doors to the Entrance Hall opened and the Durmstrang students walked in with various dates. Callie could barely recognize Hermione in her blue dress with her hair straightened and smoothed out. She was very beautiful like this, Callie thought. Fleur stepped up to the group with a Ravenclaw boy goggling at her. 

"Hi, Harry! Hi, Parvati! Hi, Callie and Fred!" Hermione whispered excitedly.

"Hi, Hermione!" Callie waved with her free hand, not wanting to let go of Fred's arm.

"Yeah, I barely recognized you, mate." Fred beamed at Hermione, who blushed and giggled nervously. She seemed not to notice the dirty looks she was getting from the other female students. 

Once everyone else was settled in the Hall, Professor McGonagall told the champions to get in line paired up with their partners and follow her. They did so and everyone in the Great Hall applauded as they entered and started walking up toward a large round table at the top of the Hall, where the judges were sitting. Percy pulled out the seat next to him for Harry to sit down, but Fred pulled Callie all the way down to the far end of the table to get away from his older brother. "Sorry. Get enough of that prat at home." 

"I don't mind. He's always kinda looked at me like I'm about to pop off and sprout horns." She whispered. 

"Be cool if you did." said Fred with a huge smile. 

There were small menus on their plates and Callie picked hers up. She ran her eyes down the list and tried to pick something that wouldn't ruin her makeup or drip on her dress. "Yorkshire Puddings with Roast Beef and Gravy." She told her plate and the plate suddenly filled in with food. She ate carefully, taking small bites, and she was surprised to see that Fred was taking small bites, too. "Afraid to get food on your new dress robes?" She asked, dabbing her napkin around her lips.

"I'm probably never getting another new set for the rest of my life, so I might as well make sure these don't get stained." He joked.

They talked between bites, moving seamlessly from eating to speaking like it was the most natural thing in the world. Callie turned to Fred as their plates cleaned themselves and smiled. "How's my makeup?"

"Gorgeous." 

"Thanks. You ready to dance?"

Fred's eyes followed what were obviously the band everyone was so excited to see; the Weird Sisters. "Yeah. You ready?" He asked, offering Callie his hand, which she took. She pulled her skirt ruffles out of the way as she stood. They walked out to the middle of the brightly lit dance floor and Fred shifted his hold of her right hand in his left and placed his right arm around her back. Callie put her left hand on Fred's shoulder and took a deep breath, her eyes floating around the crowd of students on the outskirts of the dance floor. "Don't worry about them. Just keep those pretty brown eyes on me." 

Callie took a deep breath and smiled up at Fred as the Weird Sisters struck up a slow, mournful tune. Callie barely noticed the other students coming onto the floor, too wrapped up in her own dance to care. Fred twirled her around the floor, around other couples and through the group. When the songs changed to something faster, Fred dropped her hand and pulled her closer, his hands moving to her hips. They danced for what seemed like hours and Callie was having the time of her life when the song changed and someone clearing their throat behind her made her pull away from Fred. "May I cut een?" Luc's dress robes were a beautiful light blue color and his dark hair was slicked back with gel. He looked like an luxury car salesman and Callie chuckled a bit as she turned to Fred. 

"I did promise him a dance, you know. And you ought to go see if you can run down Ludo Bagman, have that conversation he's been avoiding." She encouraged.

Fred's eyes moved from Luc to Callie and he nodded. "I'll be back and I'll bring drinks."

Luc took Callie's hand and they started to dance to a slightly upbeat Weird Sisters song. "You look very beautiful tonight, ma petite reine de Neiges."

"Merci, Luc. You look wonderful, too."

"It seems ze jokester is not causing 'avok like you zought." 

"Apparently not. Guess he's having much more fun with just me." Callie was suddenly afraid of the placement of her feet, and her hands and she felt quite uncomfortable in the embrace for the dance. Dancing with Fred had felt completely natural and fun, but dancing with Luc just felt wrong.

"Are you eenjoying ze Ball?"

"Oh, yes. I've never had so much fun. The Weird Sisters are wicked awesome."

"Oh, I am not as much of a fan of zem." 

"Right. Okay. Well, at least it's music we can dance to."

The rest of the dance was exactly the same amount of uncomfortable and tense, before Callie nodded to Luc and bowed as she walked away saying she was going to get herself a drink. She noticed Bagman talking to Percy at the table where Harry and Ron had been camped out with their dates and she found Fred grumbling with George in a corner. "Hey. Where's your frog?" George asked.

"Don't call him that."

"No, he's more a wolf. With that grin and the hair."

"Can we go for a walk? I'm burning up and I don't want Luc to come looking for me." 

Fred's eyes perked up at that and George smiled. "What, no snogs for Luc?" George asked as they headed for the courtyard.

"Well, I'm Fred's date, for one thing and for the other..." She shrugged. "He's just not a very good dancer, is all." She lied.

"I smell a deception." George whispered to his twin.

"Ah, leave 'er alone. At least she's with us and not Luc."

As they walked around the rosebushes, they walked right into Snape and Karkaroff blasting the bushes likely looking for snogging students. Karkaroff grabbed his left forearm, an expression of pain on his face which was worse than last time he'd laid eyes on her and she could see Snape avoiding making the same expression. "Hello, professors. Merry Christmas." She said, smiling.

"Merry Christmas, Miss Malfoy. Have you met Professor Karkaroff?" Snape asked. She could tell by his tone that he was trying to scare Karkaroff away.

"Not formally. He accused me of being a liar and a cheat on Halloween but I'm sure that was nothing personal." She said, extending her hand which Karkaroff hesitated in taking. "Stings, doesn't it?" Her whispered inquiry made the Drumstrang headmaster's eyes widen.

"What?"

"I know what you are. No better than my uncle." She smiled as she pulled back. "It was nice to see you, Professors. Have a happy Christmas." She said, waving at them as she grabbed the twins' hands and walked past them.

"Do keep your Gryffindor friends under control, Malfoy." Snape called after her, a slight smirk on his lips.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Professor."

"Malfoy's my assistant; a quick learner and a powerful witch. A bit harsh on the senses sometimes but definitely courageous." She heard as they came to a warm spot near a rosebushes lined with fairy lights.

"What was that about?" The twins asked.

"Oh, that? Karkaroff was a Dark wizard. He's afraid of me because he doesn't know where I stand in the scheme of things. Will I hate him for the reason my mum would: that he's a scumbag Dark wizard? Or will I hate him because he ratted out other of Voldemort's inner circle? He's a jerk."

"Wow. Do you think, maybe, he-" George started, but Callie just shrugged.

"Harry thinks it might have been him, but I don't know. I don't see what he would get out of putting  _my_ name in. Putting Harry on the chopping block, that makes sense, but me?"

"You're right. How would Karkaroff know that you're an absolute disgrace to the bloodline of You-Know-Who? He was here just a couple of hours before your name went in the goblet." Fred responded.

"Maybe it was two events. Maybe Karkaroff put Harry's name in and someone else put yours in." George suggested.

"I've never considered that I might've been targeted by someone other than whoever's trying to hurt Harry."

"We should make a list of people who might have it in for you. Let me go grab a quill." Fred jumped up and ran back toward the castle.

George watched him run until he disappeared around the corner of the castle before he turned to Callie. "So... do I sense the fizzle of your relationship with the wealthy Frenchman?"

Callie shrugged. "I don't know. I mean... I really  _want_  to like him, George. He's everything I  _should_  want, but... I don't know, everything's just so  _hard_  with him. It's all forced, nothing's natural. I have to make myself laugh at his jokes and smile when he calls me his little Snow Queen and even that's supposed to be endearing, but it's not. He's just not what I want, I guess."

"So... are we in for a post-Christmas breakup?" George asked, excitedly. "I'd like to be around, if possible. Think it'd be fun to see the Frenchman cry."

" _If_  I break up with him, George, I will do it privately because that's the right way to do it... I  _think_. Because I've never broken up with anyone."

"But you  _are_  planning to, now?"

Callie took a deep breath. "Yeah. Probably."

"Good. I don't like him."

"I think I got that." Callie said, smiling as Fred came back with the quill and a scrap of parchment. "All right. Let's make that list."


	8. Treasure

The next morning, Callie met with Luc by the Black Lake. "Bonjour, ma petite-"

"Luc, it's not going to be a good morning." Luc's face fell and Callie bit her lip. "I'm... not exactly sure how to... I've never had to do this before..."

"Ma chere, s'il vous plaît, ne faites pas ça." ["My dear, please don't do this."]

"Don't make this harder, Luc. It's just not working out."

"What do you mean, 'not workeen out'? I zought we were 'appy."

"No, you didn't. You couldn't possibly have thought we were happy. If things were this difficult for me, then they couldn't have been easy for you."

"Please. Please, ma cherie. Jus' give me another chance." There wasn't as much sadness in his voice as there was an underline of fear. 

"Luc, I'm not happy. It's... hard to explain, but... things are supposed to be easier in a relationship, they're supposed to come naturally and things with you, they started naturally but now... I don't like you as much as I should. You're a perfectly fine guy and a sweet, gentlemanly..." She sighed. "I'm so sorry, Luc. I wish it weren't like this but... it just is."

"Please, please, don't-" Tears were dripping down Luc's cheeks.

"Luc, I'm sorry, but this is it. It's over. I'm so sorry." Callie sighed and walked away back toward the castle.

"Callie!" Luc cried, but she kept walking. 

George put an arm around her as she walked into the Great Hall and walked her over to the Gryffindor table. "It is done! Calidara Malfoy has officially severed ties to the Beauxbatons pretty boy."

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Fred all clapped politely, while smiling up at her. "I don't think it's something worth applause. He was really upset."

"He'll get over it. He  _is_  a man, isn't he?" Ron joked.

"Even a  _man_ is allowed to mourn the loss of a girl like Callie." Fred piped up. "He'll be dreamin' of this one the rest of his life."

Callie chuckled and grabbed a cinnamon swirl roll off of Fred's plate. "Eh, he'll probably come to the conclusion that he dodged a bullet, eventually. I mean, I'm Voldemort's daughter. Who wants to get caught up in all that?"

"Someone worthy." George answered.

"And don't say the name." Ron urged.

"You want me to call my own father 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

Ron looked at his brothers, who both shrugged, then sighed. "No. Guess not. Give you a pass, same as Harry."

"Well, thank you, Ron." Callie said, taking a bite of Fred's cinnamon roll. 

~~

Callie asked Harry several times if he'd figured out the egg. He always hesitated before answering that he was  _really_ close. Every time she went to explain how to figure it, he'd stop her and say he didn't need help. She could tell that he did, but he didn't want to ask for it. She determined to ask again weekly. When she went to Care of Magical Creatures on Monday, she found that Hagrid was on leave, temporarily replaced by a woman named Grubbly-Plank who was very not Hagrid. She was teaching about unicorns and actually giving a good lesson, which Hagrid had never managed. He'd been outed by Rita Skeeter as a half giant, which was apparently a big deal and Callie suddenly felt bad about outing him to Lockhart two years before. She couldn't believe anyone could look at the man and  _not_ know, though. 

When she went into Snape's class, he looked up and winced. "That's... that's been happening more often lately." She walked up to the Potions Master and looked pointedly at his left arm. "What's happening?"

Snape pulled the sleeve of his robes up to show her his Dark Mark. It was black. "When the Dark Lord was defeated, it faded, went red, but now... It is strengthening, as is the pain I feel when I see you."

"Is Karkaroff's Mark doing the same?"

"Yes, Igor is quite nervous about it. He's considering fleeing."

"Voldemort would find him, wouldn't he? Kill him for being a coward; for ratting out the others to save his own hide? Kill him for running?"

Snape looked into her eyes as he pulled his sleeve down. "Yes. Even though the Dark Lord likely wouldn't do it himself, Karkaroff is likely going to die at the hands of other Dark Wizards."

"And the Mark strengthening, what does that mean?"

"I'm not-"

"Don't lie. Because I can guess what it means and all I need is your confirmation."

Snape looked down and sighed. "It likely means exactly as you're fearing, as Karkaroff is fearing."

"Great. That's... great." She took a deep breath. "Kinda thought he might find a way to come back, eventually. I mean, everyone's kinda been expecting and fearing that, haven't they?" She looked around as people started coming into the classroom. "After class, can I use some of your ingredients from your personal stores?"

"What for?"

"To prepare for next month's task."

"You've figured out the egg?"

"About halfway through December. I've got an idea for a potion which is a Garrote-gas antidote made with Gillyweed. I  _think_ it'd help me breathe underwater for longer than the Gillyweed by itself, and if I add a bit of Fire-Crab Essence, it might help me sustain myself in the cold waters of the Black Lake."

"Make enough for two batches. You'll want to ensure its longevity before the second task. Do  _not_  share with Potter and make sure you log all that you use in the inventory."

"Yes, sir. Thanks, Professor."

~~

Callie was happy to see when Hagrid came back to teach them. She was glad that he hadn't let Rita Skeeter put him off from teaching. She was less happy to see that, as they approached February the twenty-fourth, Harry seemed worried and uncomfortable. He was barely eating, like he always did when there was pressure on him about a big Quidditch match. He most definitely didn't have a clue about the second task and she was worried about him. 

"Harry." She walked up to him in the library the day before the second task. He was surrounded by Charms books. "Oh, you figured out the egg? But not how to-"

"I should've let you help me weeks ago." He groaned.

"Well, I was only going to give you a scientific explanation of how soundwaves are muffled through water and how they move faster and so distort the original message, but it seems you figured that part out."

Harry looked up at her, exhaustion pulling at his features. "I can't figure out how to- how are you going to do it?"

She sighed and sat down on the other side of his library table. "I can't tell you. Professor Snape has told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I help you with these tasks, he's going to punish me, severely." 

"Snape has it in for me." Harry groaned.

"No, he really doesn't."

"Well, I overheard a conversation between him and Moody and-"

"And you think you know something?" Callie stood. "You don't. I know Professor Snape better than any other student in this school. I have been his T.A. for three and a half years. He's not evil and he doesn't have it out for you. Stop acting like you know something about-"

"Moody said Dumbledore is giving Snape a second chance, so what'd he do with his first chance, huh?"

Callie could feel her anger creeping up her neck. "That's none of your business!"

"So, you know, then?"

"Yes, I do." She confirmed. "And I still trust him. In fact, I trust him  _more_  now that I know, so...  _you_  should trust that Headmaster Dumbledore knows what he's doing."

"You aren't going to tell me why you trust him?" 

"Of course not! I know how to keep a secret, Potter, and I gave my word to my Head of House when he entrusted me with his truth. It is not mine to tell. All you need to know is that Severus Snape is not evil, not trying to kill you or hurt you." She shook her head and started to walk away. "If you're doing a Charm, you might want to talk to Fred and George. They're amazing at Charms."

"Fred came and got Hermione and Ron for a meeting with McGonagall a half hour ago. I don't know how long they'll be."

"Well, maybe ask George." Callie stomped away, wondering what that meeting with McGonagall could have been about.

~~

The next morning, she was down in the Great Hall, trying to make herself eat something, but her eyes kept flicking over to the Gryffindor table. Ron, Hermione, Fred and Harry were all missing. "Where's your Fred?" Callie called out to George, who shrugged. 

"Never made it to bed last night. I was hopin' you knew what was keepin' 'im."

"No, I don't. Great. Now, I get to worry about that." She muttered, chewing on a piece of toast. She took deep breaths as she walked out to the Black Lake with her potion in her hand. Harry wasn't there, on the shore of the loch, but Fleur, Viktor and Cedric were, as well as Percy, Ludo Bagman, and the trio of Headmasters. 

"Where's Potter?" Bagman asked her.

"It's not my job to keep tabs on him."

"Aren't you friends?"

"Yeah, but I don't even know where my best friend is today. He's usually taking bets on stuff like this. You know all about making bets with the Weasley Twins, don't you, Mr. Bagman?" She asked, quietly.

"Right." He laughed nervously and walked away. "We're going to give Potter a few extra minutes."

Callie nodded, taking her potion out of her pocket and looking out at the stands on the other side of the lake. There were a few signs being held up by Slytherin students that were cheering her on, but most were cheering on Cedric, Harry, or Krum. She was nervous, wondering what had been taken from her. When she saw Harry running for the lake, she downed her potion. She immediately felt warmer, but she knew she'd have to be in the water within five minutes or she would suffocate. Luckily, the judges only gave Harry long enough to catch his breath before Ludo Bagman started positioning them along the shoreline. She was placed on the opposite side of Viktor, between the Durmstrang champion and the veela champ. She pulled her robes off and there was smattering of loud whoops and catcalls from the stands and Callie was happy to see that they weren't for her, but for Fleur, who was also removing her robes to reveal a swimming costume.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One... two...  _three_!" Ludo Bagman announced before a whistle blew and Callie ran into the water just as her fingers and toes started to grow webs and her breath started coming in short. As soon as she was underwater, she was breathing just fine. She swam out to the middle of the lake, surfacing and holding her wand up to use  _Lumos_  to light the tip before diving down into the depths of the lake. 

She could see small silver fish darting out of her way as she swam down as far as she could and then started in the direction away from the shore. She was musing over what they might have taken, what might be the thing she would 'sorely miss'. She swam for what felt like fifteen minutes before she started to hear mersong. Eventually, she saw a large rock with paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what was obviously the giant squid. She was a bit shocked to see the merfolk had grayish skin and long dark green hair with yellow eyes and teeth. She was nervous about their spears, which they all seemed to be clutching harshly. Callie swam past them, quickly, into what looked like a merpeople town, complete with houses and stores. When she came to the town square, she was being watched by a whole crowd of merpeople in front of their homes. A choir of them was singing in the middle of the square and behind them was a huge statue of a merperson, likely a deceased king. Bound to the tail were five people, all but one who Callie recognized.

Ron Weasley, Cho Chang, Hermione Granger, and a little girl with shockingly silver hair were floating in the water next to Fred Weasley. All five looked like they were in a deep sleep. Callie swam to Fred. He was hers, the thing she'd miss most. She pulled at the weeds holding him to the statue, but they were thick and slimy and very strong and her hands were not strong enough to break them alone. She looked around for something to use, then bent forward and started to bite at the ties. As soon as the weed was weak, she grabbed each side of the weed and yanked until it broke apart. She pulled him free of the statue and grabbed him by his robes and started to swim away. Fred was much bigger than her and it was difficult to maneuver him, so she pulled the ribbon out of her hair, wrapped his wrists together and positioned his arms over her head like a scarf. Swimming was easier that way, even if he dragged her down a bit.

When she made it to the surface, she heard applause and screaming as she pulled Fred off of her and untied his wrists. He coughed and his eyes opened and he blinked at her. "Can you swim?" She asked, before ducking back under the water to take a breath. She still had gills for another few minutes. 

"Yeah. You good?"

She nodded and they both started swimming toward the shore. By the time they made it to the shore, her gills were gone. Madam Pomfrey ran to them and wrapped the two of them in thick blankets. Callie looked around. No one else was on the shore except the judges. "What's my time? I wasn't last, was I? I thought they were behind me."

"Never mind that. Let's get you warmed up." Pomfrey cooed.

"What was that potion you used?" Ludo Bagman asked as he and the other judges walked up, but he didn't seem as much interested as he was upset.

"It doesn't have a name, yet. I created it. Maybe, uh, Fish Face Serum. It's a take on Anti-Garrote Gas made with Gillyweed and Fire-Crab Essence for warmth."

"You created it?" Karkaroff asked.

"Yes. I'm great at Potions."

"You didn't 'ave any 'elp wiz eet?" Madame Maxime asked.

"No. That would be against the rules, wouldn't it? I came up with it myself. I executed it myself. Now, will someone please tell me my time?!" She exclaimed. 

"Forty-eight minutes." Dumbledore answered, proudly. "You are our first Champion to return with their hostage."

"No shit? Oh, I'm so sorry. I just... Terribly sorry." She chuckled, covering her mouth. "I can't believe I..." She pulled the blanket tighter around her and looked out at the water. 

About ten minutes later, Cedric and Cho broke the surface and made it to the shore soon after. Viktor Krum and Hermione were next, followed by Fleur... alone. And then, as the minutes ticked by, Callie got worried about Harry. She wasn't certain what he'd used to breathe underwater and she was getting worried that perhaps it had failed and Ron and Harry were going to be done in by the damn Black Lake. Eventually, however, Harry broke the surface of the water with Ron and Fleur's hostage both in tow. Fleur was in hysterics as Ron and Harry helped the little girl swim to shore, where they were wrapped in their own thick blankets. A group of merpeople had followed Harry and Dumbledore began a conversation with the chieftainess.

"A conference before we give the marks, I think." Dumbledore said, before the judges went into a huddle. As the judges deliberated, Fleur went to Harry and Ron, kissing them on their cheeks for helping her sister, Gabrielle, make it back to the shore. Callie was watching the judges, trying to avoid the fact that Fred was staring at her and had been since they got to the shore.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision." Ludo Bagman's magnified voice called out. "Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows... Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points." 

There was applause from the stands. "Calidara Malfoy, who created a never-before-seen potion from Gillyweed and Fire-Crab Essence, was the first to return with her hostage and was the only one to make it back before the hour mark." To her surprise, there was a swell of applause from the Slytherins and even a bit of cheering from the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. "We award her forty-nine points." Callie was stunned.

"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was second to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour. We therefore award him forty-seven points. Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was third to return with his hostage. We award him forty points." Karkaroff clapped hard, looking very superior. "Harry Potter used straight Gillyweed with great effect. He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was second to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."

Harry looked down at that and Callie felt a bit guilty at only caring about bringing Fred back. "Most of the judges-" Bagman continued, throwing a particularly nasty look towards Karkaroff. "-feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However... Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

Callie blinked. Cedric had caught up with the two point lead Harry had on him after the first task. Krum and Fleur had both fallen back and she... "You're in first place, Callie!" Harry cried, excitedly. Viktor Krum looked upset and tried to get Hermione's attention but she was too busy yelling excitedly about Harry and Cedric tying for second. Callie was left looking around the shore and the realization hit her that she might have a problem. Yes, she was in first place, but that wasn't going to help her when people realized that Fred Weasley was her hostage, not for the reason that Ron was Harry's hostage but for the reason that Hermione was Krum's; that Cho was Cedric's. She wasn't going to be able to handle that knowledge getting out. She could almost  _feel_  the people in the stands making their judgments. She looked around, smiled tightly at whoever might be looking, then rushed away from the loch. 

She sat behind the statue on the fourth floor, staring at the ceiling. Normally, she'd seek refuge in the courtyard, but she knew that Fred would look for her there. She was hoping he wouldn't look for her in the fourth floor corridor where they'd rekindled their friendship. She was hoping she'd have time to think things through before she had to face him again. If she could just pretend like they stole Fred, not because he was the thing she'd miss most, but because she didn't  _have_ a thing she'd miss, maybe that'd be convincing. Most everyone thought she was heartless and cold, anyway. Voldemort's heartless spawn.

"So, you're in love with me." Fred said, unceremoniously dropping to the stone floor next to the statue.

She scoffed. "You wish, Weasley."

"I  _wish_  you'd told me sooner." He said, pushing his hair out of the way and pressing his shoulder into hers. "I could've been a better date at the Yule Ball." 

"You were perfect at the Yule Ball. Never had so much fun in my life."

"So, why didn't you say?"

"Because you can't like me." She turned her eyes to him. "You're... you. Charming and funny and older than me and... even if I thought you might... we're different Houses. We're so different."

"Different, huh?" Fred put his hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"You know what I mean."

"You mean your uncle would kill you if you dated a Weasley."

"Lucius wouldn't touch  _me_. He's hoping to get special consideration once Voldemort returns. I  _mean_..." She bit her lip. "The people I care about... they  _die,_ Fred. What if Voldemort comes back? What if Lucius does to you what he did to the Nefzens? I couldn't bear it. I've already lost so much."

Fred wrapped his arm around her and hugged her to him. "I've thought you were cute since the first time George and I talked to you." 

"Really?" She squeaked, relaxing into the embrace.

"Yeah. You were... friendless, but not letting it get to you. You were funny, tryin' to get under the skin of the Slytherins. You were able to keep up a conversation with both of us without looking overwhelmed at how we talk together. I didn't realize I really fancied you until this summer when you didn't write and it bugged me a lot more than it should've. I was mad that you didn't write, thought you were bein' all posh and what all... And then you started snogging Luc and that threw me. I didn't think you liked me. Even though George told me you did."

"George knew I liked you?"

"He was positive of it. He tol' me I needed to tell you how I feel... him an' Lee and... Bill and Charlie and Mum and Hermione and... Harry and Ron... pretty much anyone who's seen us together." 

"I..." She blushed and looked down. "I didn't think you liked me, Freddie... I can't believe you do... and I always thought that it'd be safer for you if youwerejust a friend."

"But not nearly as fun for either of us." 

"Am I worth the risk, Freddie?"

"Yeah, Cal, I think you are. You can be my pretty parselmouth."

"And you can be my ginger joker." She smiled. As much as she wasn't expecting this, it was a secret fantasy of hers and now she was getting it. All because of the stupid Triwizard Tournament. If one good thing came from her name being put in the Goblet, this was enough.


	9. A Cave with a Hippogriff

"Did you give Potter my Gillyweed?" Snape growled as soon as she walked into the classroom. 

" _No_. I wouldn't. You, very specifically, told me not to. I haven't helped Harry on anything. Besides, if I were going to give him Gillyweed, I'd've put it on the inventory with the stuff  _I_  needed."

"There are Boomslang skins missing, too."

"And I definitely didn't take any of those."

Snape looked at her, then nodded. "Potter." He growled.

At the beginning of March, Callie found Pansy Parkinson giggling over a  _Witch Weekly_  magazine in their dorm room. She flipped it open to an article titled  _Harry Potter's Secret Heartache (and Calidara Malfoy's folly)_ which was a Rita Skeeter creation accusing Hermione of breaking up with Harry for Krum. Pansy was quoted as suggesting that Hermione probably used a love potion to get Krum's attention. The article then moved on to wonder about Callie's breakup with Luc and what might have caused that. 

Of course, Pansy brought the magazine to Potions and the Gryffindor trio read it under their table as Snape put the ingredients that they would need for their Wit-Sharpening Potion. Callie tried to get their attention but it was too late, Snape snatched the magazine and started reading from it. He got to the end of the part about Harry and stopped, but Callie tapped her knuckles on her desk. "Go on, Professor. 'Continued on page 18'. Read the rest." 

Snape glared at her before flipping to page 18 and reading on.

**Calidara Malfoy, who until Christmas could be seen on the arm of Beauxbatons student Luc Dupuis of the Marseilles Dupuises, seems to have traded down. A source at Hogwarts says that, on top of being her hostage for the second task, Sixth year Gryffindor Fred Weasley has become the Snow Queen's new paramour. "She's been friends with the twins since her first year. I've always thought one of them was going to try to bag her," cousin Draco Malfoy said. "They're poor, but if one of them marries Callie, they'll be in for more gold than they've ever dreamed of."**

**Dorm-mate Pansy Parkinson thinks the destitute Weasley boy might have more to do with Calidara's split from Dupuis than it seems. "She was all over Luc one day, whispering to each other in French and kissing by the lake when they thought no one was paying attention, and then Fred Weasley takes her to the Yule Ball and the next day she dumps Luc completely. Whose to say that Fred didn't slip something in her food and drink? If Granger is mixing up Amortentia to give to poor Viktor, maybe she sold some to Weasley. Maybe she just gave it to him so that she could break up a perfectly happy pure-blood relationship. I wouldn't put it past her."**

"That's ridiculous. You'd spot an Amortentia a mile away." Snape snarled, throwing the magazine on her desk. 

"And Fred and Hermione would never try to slip any to someone and Luc got axed because he was pushy and clingy, the whole thing lacks journalistic integrity and my fellow Slytherins joy in getting Skeeter to print things which are not true." Callie said, glaring slightly at Draco and Pansy, the latter of which giggled.

Snape decided to break up the trio, putting them all at different tables and growling down at Harry about him breaking into Snape's office, which Harry vehemently denied and then Snape pulled a small crystal bottle out of his robes. Callie immediately recognized it as Veritaserum. Snape was threatening to use Truth Potion to find out whether Harry had been in his office, which she was certain he hadn't. Soon after, a knock came to the dungeon door. "Go answer the door." Snape ordered Callie, who rushed to the other side of the classroom and opened the door. Karkaroff hissed and immediately looked away from Calidara, his eyes on the ceiling as he walked past her. 

"We need to talk." Karkaroff said, abruptly. He barely moved his lips, like he was trying to not be heard, but Callie, arriving at her T.A. desk and Harry at the front table definitely heard.

"I'll talk to you after my lesson, Karkaroff." 

"I want to talk now, while you can't slip off, Severus. you've been avoiding me."

"After the lesson." 

Callie knew what it must be about. Karkaroff was absentmindedly rubbing at his left forearm, avoiding looking at her. She was filled with the urge to mess with him. "Do you think he'll keep you around to play with or just take you out as soon as he returns?" She asked nonchalantly, as she bottled her Wit-Sharpening Potion.

"What?" Karkaroff gasped.

"There's nowhere you can flee where he won't find you." She continued. 

"What are you-"

Callie looked up and smiled. "Did you say something, Professor Karkaroff?"

"No, you did."

"No, I didn't." She said, before handing her bottle to Snape. 

She was waiting for Harry after class let out, knowing that Harry was staying behind to see what Karkaroff wanted with Snape. "You shouldn't snoop. If Snape had seen you-"

"Thought he didn't have it out for me. Thought he wasn't evil."

"He's  _not_ but that doesn't mean he'll stand for you spying on him."

Harry visibly dropped it. "Are you doing Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Figured I should flaunt my relationship in front of Miss Skeeter. Hear she's still staying in the village." Callie hugged her books to her. "I think I'm going to treat Fred and George to lunch and drinks. Wanna join?"

"They gonna let you spend the Malfoys' gold on them?"

"It's  _my_ gold, thank you. Last year, I sold a platinum necklace Lucius gave me for Christmas several years ago. I've been saving most of it, but-"

"Why'd you sell it?"

"It was a skull, given to me the same Christmas Draco gave me this." She pulled her left sleeve up to show him the oroborus bracelet. "You put them together and they became the Dark Mark. I didn't know that when they gave them to me, of course. I didn't know what the Dark Mark looked like until last year. After I realized that Lucius must've... well, last time we went to Diagon Alley, I took a detour to Knockturn Alley, went to Borgin and Burkes. They gave me 50 Galleons for it. I'm certain I could have gotten more, but I just wanted to be rid of it. Tried to get rid of the bracelet, too, but it won't come off. Probably cursed." 

She pulled her sleeve back down and shrugged. "Anyway. I'll be in Hogsmeade. You?"

"Yeah, actually. I got a letter from..." Harry's eyes widened. "Can I see that bracelet?" Callie rolled her sleeve up again and Harry grabbed her arm, focusing on the snake. When his mouth opened again, he was hissing. " _Am I speaking parseltongue?_ "

Callie giggled. "Yeah. Yeah, you are. I can't believe we've never done this before!"

Harry smiled brightly and his eyes flicked from Callie's face back to the bracelet. " _I got another letter from Sirius. He's in Hogsmeade. He wants to meet us at two o'clock Saturday, and wants us to bring as much food as we can. Hermione and Ron will be going, too. Can you sneak away from Fred and George at a little before two?_ "

"Yes. Yes, I can, Harry. And this?" She shook her left wrist slightly. "This is brilliant. We don't have to go elsewhere to talk about sensitive subjects anymore. I'm so dumb that I haven't thought of this before! This is so clever!" 

~~

Callie spent the morning in Hogsmeade treating Fred and George to anything they'd let her buy them, which was lunch and a butterbeer and a couple things from Zonko's Joke Shop. At 1:30, she looked down at her watch and finished her butterbeer quickly. "You guys have fun, but I have to go do a thing." 

"'Go do a thing?'" The twins repeated.

"That doesn't sound, at all, suspicious." Fred teased.

"Come on. A girl's got to keep some mystery." She said, setting her empty mug on the table and wrapping her arms around Fred. "I'll see you at dinner, okay?"

"Yeah, all right." Fred gave her a squeeze and then released her and she rushed out to meet with Harry, Hermione and Ron. 

Ron looked a bit put out by her presence. "Explain again how she knows  _him_?" He asked Harry as they started down the High Street toward the edge of the village.

Harry looked over at her, his eyebrows high. Callie sighed, popping a chocolate frog open. "After my parents died, when I was pushing everyone away because I was scared that they were going to be hurt for being close to me, I started spending my weekends in the Forbidden Forest. Like, every weekend. Well, Sirius was basically living in the Forest, so our paths crossed eventually. He knew my mum, knew about me. He calls me 'Melanie', and none of you need to correct him when he does because I actually like it when he says it."

"You met him when we all thought he was an evil, betraying murderer?" Ron asked, shocked.

"And you didn't say anything? You didn't tell Harry the truth?" Hermione said.

"I wouldn't have believed her." Harry answered. "Would you have?"

Hermione and Ron looked at each other, then both shrugged. "No. Not without any evidence." Hermione said.

"Yeah, well, she should've tried."

"I put my effort into helping him find evidence. I tried to help him get his hands on your rat." She clarified.

"How'd you-"

"That's not important, Ron." Harry interrupted. It was clear to Callie that Harry didn't want Ron to know that Callie was the reason for that night Ron woke up with a crazed-looking Sirius standing over his bed with a knife.

"So, what'd you get for food?" Callie asked.

"Chicken, mostly, and a loaf of bread and a bit of pumpkin juice." Harry said.

Callie pulled a small bag out of her purse and held it up. "Biscuits, scones and granola. I know it's not much, but I didn't nick it from the kitchens, I bought it, so..."

"I'm sure he'll be happy with it. He didn't specify any kind of food." said Hermione, smiling.

When they came to the end of the road, they saw a very large, shaggy black dog waiting for them with his front paws on the topmost bar of the stile, which had some newspapers in its mouth. "Hello, Sirius." Harry greeted.

"Hello, Snuffles." Callie smiled at him.

The dog sniffed Harry's bag eagerly, wagged its tail once, then turned and began to trot away from them. The four of them climbed over the stile to follow him. "'Snuffles'?" Hermione asked.

"That's what he called his Animagus self." 

They followed Sirius to the foot of the mountain near Hogsmeade and up a rocky winding path. It was difficult to follow and Callie was tempted to turn into Kiki, but she struggled with the others following him. Eventually, Sirius slipped out of sight and when they reached the place where he disappeared, they saw a narrow fissure in the rock, which they each squeezed through into a cave. Buckbeak was tied up in the far side of the cave. They all bowed to the Hippogriff, who bent his scaly front knees. Callie and Harry, however, focused in on the big black dog which became the fugitive Sirius Black.

Sirius was wearing the ratty gray robes he'd been wearing when he escaped from Azkaban and his hair had grown a bit longer since the fire and was dirty and matted again. He looked extremely thin. "Chicken!" He said hoarsely, removing the newspapers from his mouth and throwing them down to the cave floor. Harry pulled open his bag and handed over the bundle of chicken legs and bread. Callie gently put the other bundle down next to the newspapers. Sirius went for the chicken first, grabbing a drumstick and tearing a large chunk off with his teeth. "Thanks. I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself."

"What're you doing here, Sirius?" Harry said, a bit hesitant in returning Sirius' grin.

"Fulfilling my duty as godfather. Don't worry about it, I'm pretending to be a lovable stray." He looked at the nervousness on Harry's face and his own tone took on more seriousness. "I want to be on the spot. Your last letter... well, let's just say things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried." Ron moved to pick up the papers on the cave floor but Harry was too worried to be distracted.

"What if they catch you? What if you're seen?"

"You four and Dumbledore are the only ones around here who know I'm an Animagus." Sirius shrugged and moved on with his chicken. 

As Harry and Ron dithered over the newspaper articles about Bartemius Crouch disappearing, hadn't been seen since November, and Bertha Jorkins is still missing, Callie sat in front of Sirius. "I brought baked goods and granola. I mean, not as yummy as chicken, I know, but they'll last longer and they keep you fuller for longer. I know turning can take a lot of energy." She said, quietly. 

"How are you doing, Melanie? Or would you rather be called 'Calidara' like that Skeeter woman calls you?" Sirius asked, around his chicken. 

"I'm perfectly happy to be called 'Melanie'."

"Or was it 'Kiki'?" He whispered and she chuckled as the others talked about Hermione's preoccupation with the plight of house-elves. "You've got chocolate in that purse. Smelled it back at the road." He said, smiling.

"Chocolate's not good for dogs." She joked. "You can have a Chocolate Frog, but I bought the Chocoballs to share with my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?"

"Yeah, my brother." Ron piped up. He sounded almost proud.

"Fred. He's one of the twins." Callie said, pulling out a Chocolate Frog and putting it on top of the bundle she brought. "Guess you haven't picked up any copies of  _Witch Weekly_ from the rubbish. Rita Skeeter did half an article about me breaking up with my first boyfriend in favor of Freddie."

"Luc Dupuis is a wealthy pure-blood pretty-boy and the Weasleys don't have a lot of gold so Rita Skeeter seems to think Fred dosed her with Love Potion." Hermione complained.

"Dupuis? Why is that familiar?" Sirius asked, going for another drumstick. 

"His family are big muckity-mucks in Marseilles." Callie answered. 

"Anyway, Callie, er  _Melanie_  has liked Fred for a lot longer than she's even known Luc." 

"True. Fell for him in First year."

Sirius smiled at her before the conversation moved back to house-elves and Bartemius Crouch. Sirius was interested in the fact that Crouch had sacked his elf and Harry went into the story of how the Dark Mark was shot into the sky at the World Cup and how it was done with Harry's wand and Winky the house-elf had been found clutching Harry's wand in her hand and Mr. Crouch had been absolutely furious about it. As Harry told the story, Sirius stood and began to pace back and forth. 

"Let me get this straight. You first saw the elf in the Top Box. She was saving Crouch a seat?"

"Right." said Harry, Ron and Hermione together, while Callie said, "I guess that's what she was doing."

"But Crouch didn't turn up for the match?"

"No, I think he said he'd been too busy." Harry said.

"Harry, did you check your pockets for your wand after you'd left the Top Box?"

"Erm... no. I didn't need to use it before we got in the forest. And then I put my hand in my pocket, and all that was in there was my Omnioculars. Are you saying whoever conjured the Mark stole my wand in the Top Box?"

"It's possible."

"Winky didn't steal that wand!" Hermione insisted.

"The elf wasn't the only one in that box. Who else was sitting behind you?"

"Loads of people. Some Bulgarian ministers... Cornelius Fudge... the Malfoys..." Harry answered, turning to look at Callie.

"The Malfoys! I bet it was Lucius Malfoy!" Ron yelled, spooking Buckbeak.

"Anyone else?" said Sirius.

"Ludo Bagman." Callie answered as Harry and Hermione both opened their mouths to answer. 

"Oh, yeah." Harry said. 

"I don't know anything about Bagman except that he used to be Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps. What's he like?" Sirius asked.

"He's okay. He keeps offering to help me with the Triwizard Tournament." Harry said.

"Does he, now? I wonder why he'd do that?" Sirius had a deep frown on his face.

"Says he's taken a liking to me."

"I think he's bet on the outcome. Harry and I were long odds, according to Freddie, who has also been taking bets on the outcomes." Callie answered.

"Should've bet on you. You're in the lead." Harry said.

"But what if it's not that? We saw him in the forest just before the Dark Mark appeared." Hermione told Sirius. "Remember?" She turned to Harry and Ron. 

As they went through Crouch's reaction to finding Winky with the wand and Hermione got heated about how Winky got fired and Ron complained about it, Sirius pulled out the old standby of 'If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.' His ran his hand down his face, rubbing at his stubble, and said it was very unlike Crouch to be taking so much time off of work. Harry asked if Sirius knew Crouch and the man's face darkened. 

"Oh, I know Crouch all right. He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban- without a trial." He said quietly.

" _What_?" said Ron and Hermione together.

"No wonder you got railroaded!" said Callie.

"You're kidding!" said Harry.

"No, I'm not. Crouch used to be Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, didn't you know?" Sirius took another bite of chicken as the teens all shook their heads. "He was tipped for the next Minister of Magic. He's a great wizard, Barty Crouch, powerfully magical- and power-hungry. Oh never a Voldemort supporter, of course. No, Barty Crouch was always very outspoken against the Dark Side, but then a lot of people were against the Dark Side... well, you wouldn't understand... you're too young..."

"That's what my dad said at the World Cup." said Ron, with irritation in his voice. "Try us, why don't you?"

A grin flashed across Sirius' thin face. "All right, I'll try you..." He paced from the front of the cave, to the back and then to the front again and then said, "Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves." Callie closed her eyes. "You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing... the Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere... panic... confusion... that's how it used to be.

Well, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Crouch's principles might've been good in the beginning- I wouldn't know. He rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort's supporters. The Aurors were given new powers- powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed straight to the dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence, and authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side. He had his supporters, mind you- plenty of people thought he was going about thing the right way, and there were a lot of witches and clamoring for him to take over as Minister of Magic. When Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter of time until Crouch got the top job. But then something rather unfortunate happened..." Sirius smiled, grimly. "Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently, they were trying to find Voldemort and return him to power."

"Crouch's  _son_  was caught?" gasped Hermione.

"Yep." said Sirius, throwing his chicken bone to Buckbeak, flinging himself back down on the ground beside the loaf of bread, and tearing it in half. "Nasty little shock for old Barty, I'd imagine. Should have spent a bit more time at home with his family, should he? Ought to have left the office early once in a while... gotten to know his own son." Harry asked if his son had been a Death Eater, but Sirius didn't know as he'd been in Azkaban already by then. He could confirm that the people Crouch's son were found with were most certainly Death Eaters.

When Hermione asked if Crouch had tried to get his son out of the trouble he'd found himself in, Sirius gave a barking laugh. "Crouch let his son off? I thought you had the measure of him, Hermione! Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go; he had dedicated his whole life to becoming Minister of Magic. You saw him dismiss a devoted house-elf because she associated him with the Dark Mark again- doesn't that tell you what he's like? Crouch's fatherly affection stretched just far enough to give his son a trial, and by all accounts, it wasn't much more than an excuse for Crouch to show how much he hated the boy... then he sent him straight to Azkaban."

"He gave his own son over to the dementors?" Callie asked, remembering how the dementors had made her feel.

Sirius didn't look amused anymore. "That's right. I saw the dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He can't been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine. He was screaming for his mother by nightfall. He went quiet after a few days, though... they all went quiet in the end... except when they shrieked in their sleep..." Callie couldn't help but think about her mother shrieking in her sleep, she almost didn't notice Harry ask if Crouch was still in Azkaban, or Sirius respond that he wasn't there because he'd died.

"He  _died_?" Harry exclaimed.

"He wasn't the only one. Most go mad in there, and plenty stop eating in the end. They lose the will to live. You could always tell when a death was coming, because the dementors could sense it, they got excited. That boy looked pretty sickly when he arrived. Crouch being an important Ministry member, he and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit. That was the last time I saw Barty Crouch, half carrying his wife past my cell. She died herself, apparently, shortly afterward. Grief. Wasted away just like the boy. Crouch never came for his son's body. The dementors buried him outside the fortress; I watched them do it." Sirius picked up the flask of pumpkin juice and drained it. "So old Crouch lost it all, just when he thought he had it made. One moment, a hero, poised to become Minister of Magic... next, his son dead, his wife dead, the family name dishonored, and, so I've heard since I escaped, a big drop in popularity. Once the boy had died, people started feeling a bit more sympathetic toward the son and started asking how a nice young lad from a good family had gone so badly astray. The conclusion was that his father never cared much for him. So Cornelius Fudge got the top job, and Crouch was shunted sideways into the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

After a long silence, the conversation turned to Barty Crouch's obsession with catching Dark Wizards. Ron took that opportunity to bring up the fact that Barty Crouch was searching Snape's office. Hermione immediately took up Snape's defense, not giving Callie an opportunity to do so, saying that Dumbledore trusted Snape. Ron and Hermione bickered back and forth for a few moments before Harry said loudly, "What d'you think, Sirius?" and Hermione and Ron quit talking to listen.

"I think they've both got a point. Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was." Callie bit her tongue as Harry and Ron grinned at each other. He wasn't really lying. "Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out the be Death Eaters." 

Sirius held up his fingers and began ticking off names. "Rosier and Wilkes- they were both killed by Aurors the year before Voldemort fell. The Lestranges- they're a married couple- they're in Azkaban. Avery- from what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse- he's still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater- not that that means much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape's certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble." Callie's teeth bit into her tongue harder to keep herself from making any facial expression as she pulled upon her Occlumency to keep her knowledge to herself. 

"Snape knows Karkaroff pretty well, but he wants to keep that quiet." Ron said.

"Yeah, you should've seen Snape's face when Karkaroff turned up in Potions yesterday!" said Harry quickly. "Karkaroff wanted to talk to Snape, he says Snape's been avoiding him. Karkaroff looked really worried. He showed Snape something on his arm, but I couldn't see what it was."

"He showed Snape something on his arm?" Sirius asked. Callie was happy to see that Sirius didn't seem to know about the Dark Marks. "Well, I've no idea what that's about... but if Karkaroff's genuinely worried, and he's going to Snape for answers..." Sirius grimaced. "There's still the fact that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and I know Dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn't, but I just can't see him letting Snape teach at Hogwarts if he'd ever worked for Voldemort." 

Callie let out a long breath. Snape's secret was safe for now. Eventually, the conversation moved from Snape to Moody, back to Crouch, then moved on to Bertha Jorkins and her bad memory, and then Sirius asked the time. Hermione said it was half past three and Sirius told them to head back to Hogwarts, and then told Harry to continue sending letters, but don't come visit. "I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission; it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you."

"No one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of grindylows."

"I don't care... I'll breathe freely again when this tournament's over, and that's not until June. And don't forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, okay?" 

"Told you." Callie said with a smile. She was glad that Sirius hadn't told her to stay away, because she was definitely going to be bringing the man food at least once a week. Who would notice a monkey climbing up the mountain with a bundle in its mouth? She could not allow the man to live off of rats, alone in a cave. 

~~

Callie and Harry sat in the Potions classroom, both staring at her left wrist. The conversation, which had started as a friendly talk about what the last task might entail, had devolved down into Callie assuring Harry that Dumbledore was right to trust Snape and she shouldn't have to keep telling him and Harry demanding an explanation. Both of their faces had gone red.

" _Then just tell me why I should trust him! We're speaking a language only you and I understand. No one would ever know you told me._ "

Callie growled, upset. " _ **I** would know! You would know that I can't be trusted with secrets. And Ron and Hermione would know because you can't keep anything from them._"

" _Fine. Don't tell me, then, but don't get upset when I don't trust the man who's hated me for years for no reason!_ "

" _He **has** reason. He despised your father and you  **are** a bloody rule-breaker! You've done a lot of what he's accused you of. You flaunt curfews, you go in the Forest, you sneak around under an invisibility cloak, you-_"

" _So do you! You even helped me steal potion ingredients and he loves you! Is it because you're-_ "

" _It has nothing to do with Voldemort. I weaseled my way in all my own, thank you. Just because you don't understand how the man keeps himself doesn't mean-_ "

The sound of a throat clearing tore their attentions away from the bracelet. Apparently, while they were wrapped up in their bickering, the class had filled in around them. They were being stared at. She guessed it was an odd thing to witness an argument in any foreign tongue, but it must have been truly odd to see one in the hissing of parseltongue. "Your desk is at the front, Malfoy." said Snape, softly. He wasn't angry, or unnerved as the other students were. Snape's tone could only be described as curious.

"I know. Sorry, Professor." She said, standing and letting her sleeve slide over the bracelet.

"And you might want to hold back from the parseltongue. You wouldn't want Rita Skeeter to catch wind of you and Potter having lovers' tiffs that only you two can understand." Draco sneered. "She might make up any sort of topics for you two to be discussing."

"I'll give her a topic... about a little white ferret who still wets itself when he's alone with Professor Moody." She shot back as she walked to the desk at the front. The Gryffindors giggled, but Draco and his friends just glared up at her as she sat down.

"Care to share?" Snape asked, quietly, once he made it up to the blackboard.

"No, sir. Would violate the point of speaking a language that no one else does, wouldn't it?"

"Don't argue in my classroom, then."

"It wasn't an argument; just a heated discussion."

"On your own time, Miss Malfoy."

"Yes, sir." She said, pulling out her tools.


	10. The Calm Before

"So, where does your boyfriend think you are?" Sirius asked, chewing on a biscuit she'd brought. This time, she'd taken a page from Fred and George's book and gone to the kitchens.

"T.A. duties for Professor Snape." She answered, popping a bit of a cranberry scone in her mouth.

"And Snape? Where does  _he_  think you are?"

"Preparing myself for a Transfiguration exam in the library."

"And does Harry know you've come?"

"No. No way to explain my being here without telling him about Kiki and, currently, that's a secret held by you, Dumbledore and the Improper Use of Magic Office."

"Your boyfriend doesn't know?"

"Of course not. I became an Animagus as a fail-safe against Lucius. If people know, Lucius might hear, then he'll be expecting it. So, Dumbledore knows because I told him, you saw me and I had to register with the Ministry, didn't I?"

"Aren't you afraid Lucius will see you on the Registry?"

"No. I registered as 'Calidara Nefzen'. That's my Muggle name. Doubt he remembers that."

Sirius gave her a look before tearing a roll in half. "I notice Snivellus isn't on the list. You trust him enough to keep his secrets, but won't entrust him with your own?"

"I know you don't like him, but you don't-"

"Do  _you_ like him?" Sirius interrupted, his grey-blue eyes focusing in on her brown ones. "Because you seem a lot more like you'd've been a friend of mine rather than a friend of his, were you at Hogwarts at the same time as us."

"I appreciate him." said Callie. "And I trust him. But we probably wouldn't have been friends, you're right. I've... more interest in countercurses than curses. I don't try to get people in trouble or enjoy cruelty, but... we both champion loyalty and logic. We're both fairly good at rhyming verse. We both enjoy creating potions. And he... he was there for me when my parents died. I don't know what else to say. I might have hated him were I your age, but as a student... as a Slytherin, I appreciate him."

There was a long few moments of silence as Sirius chewed on half of a roll and then he smiled. "Snivellus is a poet?" 

Callie chuckled. "Better than me, actually. His vocabulary is extensive."

"Who would have guessed? You know you don't have to come. Harry's been sending food."

"I know, but..." Callie sighed. "You spent a decade with no company other than the dementors and people shrieking in their sleep. Buckbeak's nice an' all but he's not human interaction."

He seemed amused as his smile turned to a smirk. "Are you worried for my fragile psyche?" 

"Have you seen yourself, lately? You look like you've been living as a stray. You need a shower, and a haircut."

"Do I?"

"You're not quite as poor-off as you were last year, but yeah, you don't look good, Mr. Black."

"Why, thank you, Melanie. I'll put forth the effort of cleaning myself, but there is not much I can do about my hair." 

"I'd offer to cut it, but I've no scissors and I'd be too afraid to cut you with a Severing Charm. It'll look better clean, I'm sure."

"Right. Well, you may as well head back to the school. You should spend some time with your boyfriend."

"Well, he's a bit preoccupied trying to get an answer out of Ludo Bagman, you know? He paid off a bet they made at the Quidditch Cup with leprechaun gold. They've been trying to get him to pay it back all year." She stood. "But I will return to school, since you have newspapers to read. And I will be back. It's nice to be around other animals, like me." She said, before turning back into Kiki and climbing back through the fissure out onto the mountain.

~~

The next few weeks were a blur of classes, training with Snape on random defensive and offensive spells, spending every other Saturday taking food to Sirius, who looked paler every time she went to see him, and spending time with Fred and George, but mostly Fred. Fred kept making jokes about snogging by the lake, but they didn't spend any time by the lake, and they hadn't done any snogging. They held hands in the corridors, and cuddled in the courtyard, but neither had tried to initiate a kiss. There was also a very nice moment on Easter holidays where Fred presented her with a chocolate egg almost as large the Golden Egg she'd rescued from the dragon. It had a note attached in Mrs. Weasley's neat handwriting, saying ' _ **Happy Easter**!_ "

In the last week of May, she was called out to the Quidditch pitch to receive info on the last task. It was to be a maze, filled with monsters and spells to be broken. She went inside immediately afterward, narrowly missing a crazed Barty Crouch showing up at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. 

"I don't care what Hagrid and them say, Krum's an all right guy. He didn't have anything to do with all this nonsense." Callie commented over lunch the next morning. She'd started sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table during lunch, knowing that if a teacher or member of staff said anything about her sitting at the wrong table, she could just pretend like she was sitting there temporarily. 

"I was saying the same thing." Hermione defended.

"I don't like it." Ron said, with his mouth full of shepherd's pie. "He's a-"

"Figure, as long as he's keepin' his eyes on Hermione, I got no problems with Viktor Krum." said Fred with a smirk.

"Oh, Freddie, are we at the jealous stage of our relationship?" Callie joked, eating a grape.

"Jealous stage? He's been at the jealous stage since you first spoke frog language with the pretty boy." George responded.

"Thank you, George." said Fred, sarcastically.

~~

The Monday after learning about the maze, and the disappearance of Barty Crouch, Harry stomped into the Great Hall and right up to Callie, who was sitting at the end of the Slytherin table. "I need to talk to you. Not here." He said, before turning and stomping away. Callie stood slowly and followed him out to the Entrance Hall. They moved to the corner by the bulletin board and Harry grabbed her left wrist roughly. Staring at the snake, he hissed out, " _Snape's a Death Eater._ "

Callie's eyes went wide. "What makes you say that?" She asked, in English because she wasn't looking at the bracelet.

" _Dumbledore told me! I saw it in his bloody memories. He's got it in a pensieve up in his office! You knew he was a Death Eater, didn't you?"_

"He's not  _anymore_." Callie defended.

" _How long have you known?_ " 

"Since First Year, but..." Callie looked down at her wrist. " _I knew he was a Death Eater since the second week of First Year, but I also knew that Dumbledore trusted him. Harry, he went spy months before Voldemort was defeated. He's been on our side, the side of good, for years!_ "

" _You've known this whole time and he's- That's why he hates me! Maybe he never stopped being one of your father's followers! Maybe that's why you've spent the last four years as his teacher's assistant! Maybe you're working with-"_

Callie pulled her arm away from Harry, angrily. "Well, it's a bit later than normal but I understand that you're preoccupied this year." She growled.

"What do you mean?" Harry growled back.

"Every year, Harry, you decide at some point that I am evil. Every year, except last year, but I guess I got a pass because my parents got murdered." She pushed him away from her and stomped back toward the Great Hall. "Every year, I have to prove myself to you. No matter what I do to give evidence that I am  _not_  my bloody father, you still think I'm evil. You don't have to be my friend, Harry. You don't have to talk to me, or believe I am anything other than what you want to believe of me. You wanna think I'm evil, go on. There's apparently nothing I can do to stop you." 

Harry looked a bit guilty as she walked into the Great Hall and Fred ran up to see if she was all right. "I'm fine." She answered, but the tears in her eyes made him grab onto her hands and hold her still.

"Cal, you don't look fine."

"Why do you always trust me? You've never thought I was evil, but Harry..." She cleared her throat and shook her head. "Harry, Hermione and Ron, they always fall back on-"

"I've never thought you were evil because you're an amazing, beautiful, intelligent-"

"You can be evil and be all that at the same time." Callie dismissed. "Evil doesn't always show on the skin, or on the outward personality. How can you know, without doubt, that I'm not evil?"

Fred wiped his fingers under her eyes and smiled at her. "I just know it. I've known you for years. I've seen you sad and angry and happy. I've seen the whole of your heart. You are a girl who wants to fix things. You wanna help people. You are gonna make a great Healer because you have a loving, nurturing heart and you can't have that and be evil. They don't go together."

"Oh, Freddie." She cried, wrapping her arms around his chest and leaking tears into the fabric of his robes.

"Hey, it's okay, Cal." Fred soothed, before his arms tightened, slightly. "Move on, mate. You can apologize later." Callie didn't have to look to see that Harry had walked up to try to talk to her again.

"Thanks." She muttered into his chest.

"Any time, treasure mine."

~~

Callie started to sit at the Slytherin table again, unwilling to speak to Harry, anymore. He'd tried to apologize, saying he'd overreacted and that he didn't really think she was evil, but she cut him off every time he tried. She refused to talk to him right up to the morning of the third task, when the mail came through and a  _Daily Prophet_  dropped into Draco's lap. In it was an article about Harry's scar hurting in Divination class and made it seem like he was making it up for attention and then it talked about him being a Parselmouth.

     **"P** **otter and Callie can speak Parseltongue. They have little arguments with each other that no one else understands." reveals Draco Malfoy, a Hogwarts fourth year. "There were a lot of attacks on students a couple of years ago, and most people thought that one of them was behind them. Especially after they saw Potter lose his temper at a dueling club and set a snake on another boy. It was all hushed up, though. But they've both made friends with werewolves and giants too. We think they'd do anything for a bit of power."**

**Parseltongue, the ability to converse with snakes, has long been considered a Dark Art. Indeed, the most famous Parselmouth of our times is none other than You-Know-Who himself, so Calidara Malfoy's ability is likely inherited from him. A member of the Dark Force Defense League, who wished to remain unnamed, stated that he would regard any wizard who could speak Parseltongue "as worthy of investigation. Personally, I would be highly suspicious of anybody who could converse with snakes, as serpents are often used in the worst kinds of Dark Magic, and are historically evildoers." Similarly, "anyone who seeks out the company of such vicious creatures as werewolves and giants would appear to have a fondness for violence."**

**Albus Dumbledore should surely consider whether a boy and girl such as these should be allowed to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Some fear that they might resort to the Dark Arts in their desperation to win the tournament, the third task of which takes place this evening.**

Draco immediately made it a joke, teasing Harry from across the Great Hall, but Callie just stood up and walked over to the Gryffindor table as Hermione rushed away. "She's a nasty woman, this Rita Skeeter, but I suppose Draco did warn us that he was going to tell her we're Parselmouths. I won't apologize for being friends with Professor Lupin  _or_  Professor Hagrid. Everyone can be violent, especially when they're scared... or hurt."

"Callie, I'm really-" Harry started.

"I don't want to go into this last task angry with you, Harry. I'm a fixer. I like things to be all right. I'm not evil and neither is Professor Snape. I promise that I didn't keep it from you because we're confederates of the Dark Arts, I did it because... in First Year, when I found out, I resolved not to say anything until I understood fully and I didn't understand until right before the first tournament task. I finally convinced him to tell me how he'd managed to stay out of Azkaban because he thought I might die, but he made me promise not to tell anyone and... Harry, sometimes good people have secrets, you know? Secrets aren't evil. Secrets can save your life."

"I'm sorry, Callie. I didn't mean it, I was just... I was shocked to find out you knew."

"I know. Snuffles was shocked with me, too. Got a nasty letter from him. Couldn't believe I was working so closely with someone who... who could've helped my mum when Voldemort had her, but chose not to." Callie shook her head. "Snape told me that he didn't know for certain that she was cursed, but he probably wouldn't have done anything to stop it, either way. I know that. I'm not ignorant of the man he was. But still... I appreciate him, nonetheless. I want to wish you luck, Harry, and I don't want you worrying about how I'm upset at you, okay?"

"Okay. Again, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, Harry. I-" 

"Malfoy, Potter, the champions are congregating in the chamber off the Hall after breakfast." Snape said, as he and Professor McGonagall walked up to Callie and Harry. 

"But the task's not till tonight!" Harry exclaimed, obviously afraid he'd misunderstood.

"We're aware of that, Potter. The champions' families are invited to watch the final task, you know. This is simply a chance for you to greet them." 

The professors moved away but Callie followed Snape. "Professor, if Lucius and Narcissa are in that room, I don't want to see them."

"It's not up to me, Malfoy."

"Please. Don't make me-"

"Callie, just go greet them and then leave." 

Callie waited with Harry at the end of Gryffindor table as the other students slowly emptied out of the Great Hall. "I don't want to see them."

"If the Dursleys are in that room, I'm walking back out the door." Harry said. "I don't have any family."

"Preaching to the choir, Potter."

"Think we ought to skive off, go to the library and do a spot more research on hexes?" Harry suggested once they were the last two in the Great Hall. 

"I suppose that's not an unreasonable idea." said Callie and they both got up. They were barely out of their seats when the door to the side chamber opened and Cedric stuck his head out.

"Harry, Callie, come on, they're waiting for you!" Callie and Harry exchanged a look and trudged toward the chamber. 

Cedric and his parents were just inside the door. Viktor Krum was over in a corner, conversing with his dark-haired mother and father in rapid Bulgarian. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away in French to her mother. Fleur's little sister, Gabrielle, was holding tightly to her mother's hand. She waved at Harry, who waved back. Callie's eyes fell on Mrs. Weasley and the older Weasley brother with the ponytail and the fanged earrings as Harry bounded for them. Standing in a dark corner in the opposite side of the chamber were Lucius and Narcissa, seeming as though they were above everyone else and throwing little looks of contempt at the Weasleys.

"Uncle Lucius. Aunt Narcissa." Callie greeted, stiffly.

"Melanie, dear, how are you? Are you nervous?" Narcissa responded, as warmly as the woman was able to manage.

"Not quite. I'm actually very relieved that it's almost over." 

"Do you need anything? Anything to help you-" Narcissa started.

"No. Thank you, but I'm... I'm good. It'll be- It'll all be over soon and then we can spend the summer talking about-"

"I didn't know you were Parselmouth. That seems like something you should have revealed to us." Lucius said, coldly.

"I didn't think I needed to tell you, Uncle Lucius. You knew my father was one. Is it so extraordinary that I would be one, too?"

"Parselmouths are exceedingly rare. Rarer still are Parselmouth witches. There have not been very many-" Lucius started.

"It's not that big a deal." She dismissed before smiling at them. "I hope you'll stay and enjoy the-"

"You're going to win, I know it!" Narcissa cooed.

"Thanks, Aunt Narcissa, but I'm just planning to stay alive. If I win, I'll be highly surprised." 

"Hey, Callie, dear! Have you got a minute?!" Mrs. Weasley's voice caught her attention. Callie turned and smiled at her. 

"If you don't mind..." Callie didn't wait for her aunt and uncle to answer, heading over to Harry, Mrs. Weasley and who must've been Bill. "Hello." She smiled brightly at them.

"You looked a bit tense, so we thought you might enjoy a rescue." said Bill.

"Harry's going to take us on a tour of the school. What do you think about joining us?" Mrs. Weasley offered. 

Callie gave an airy chuckle. "Anything to get out of this room, Mrs. Weasley. Thank you."

"I'm Bill. I've heard a lot about you." Bill offered his hand and she took it.

"Probably a lot of bad over the summer, eh? Freddie was pretty upset with me for not being able to write him."

Bill smiled an amused smile. "'Freddie'? Oh, that's adorable." They started out the door. "Yeah, Fred was pretty upset with you, but we all knew it was because he was smitten." 

"I  _told_  him to talk to you." Mrs. Weasley said, a bit of frustration under her words. "I told him to talk to you in  _August_. I even told him that he could use Errol and he paid me no mind because what could his dear mother possibly know?"

"They're real cute together, now, though. A lot more than Rita Skeeter makes them out to be." said Harry, with a bit of a shudder of disgust at the journalist's name.

"The idea that Fred would use a love potion on-" Mrs. Weasley started, but Callie interrupted.

"I've been taken with Freddie since first year. Rita just didn't care to ask that before writing her article. She's a terrible woman, a horrid journalist. She's a sensationalist, not an actual reporter of the news. And, you know, what she wrote about Hermione is equally untrue... and most of what she's written about Harry." 

"She hasn't written any actual lies about Callie, though. She's afraid of Lucius." Harry sounded a bit jealous of it.

"Being a Malfoy might not be good for much, but it's good for that." 

**"** I don't think you're much of a Malfoy, honestly. You really ought to go by your Muggle name. That Jemma was a sweet woman. You take after her, you know?" Mrs. Weasley said, sweetly.

"I can't even get my aunt and uncle to call me 'Callie'. I imagine it'd be pulling teeth to get them to remember 'Nefzen'."

"Fred plays his cards right, they might have to call you 'Weasley' in a few years." Bill joked and Callie felt her face go red.

"Bill, don't embarrass the poor girl! And they are far too young to be thinking of marriage. Don't put the idea in their heads." Mrs. Weasley scolded as Bill chuckled. 

They walked the grounds, Bill and Mrs. Weasley reminiscing about their time at Hogwarts. They were interested to hear from Callie about the Slytherin Common Room and dorms, as neither of them had been friendly enough with any Slytherin to even know where they were located, other than the general area of 'dungeons'. "You'd think it'd be cold and uninviting, like the Slytherins, themselves, but it's actually pretty nice. The fireplace keeps the whole Common Room warm and it's lit year-round because even in the summer semester we don't get sunshine. We're partially under the loch, though, so I've learned to communicate with the giant squid through the windows. I don't spend much time in the Common Room, though, because I prefer the sun to firelight. Wish we had sun like the Gryffindors do."

"And does the girl's dorms entrance turn to a slide if a boy tries to go in?" Bill asked.

"No, we don't have stairs to our dorms because we're in the dungeons, and so a klaxon goes off and a trap door opens up, drops him in Professor Snape's office. Draco found that out earlier this year. He thought it was a myth, tried to go see his girlfriend, Pansy. He woke the whole House."

"Did he get a detention?" Bill asked, amused.

"Of course not. Unless another instructor is watching, Snape doesn't discipline his own House unless they've done something completely destructive." Callie answered. "So, of course, next time Pansy went to him. Girl in the boys' dorm doesn't set off the alarm."

"Same in Gryffindor." Mrs. Weasley responded off-hand before realizing what she'd said and blushing. "So I hear." 

They went to the Great Hall for lunch and Ron was confused and excited to see his mother and oldest brother. The Malfoys were mercifully not in the hall for lunch, so Callie sat at the Gryffindor table with the Weasleys, Fred taking his seat next to her. She laid her head on his shoulder as a way of hugging him and she ate her food with her left hand because she had the fingers of her right hand intertwined with the fingers of his left. She could tell that Mrs. Weasley thought it was adorable.

"You nervous, Cal?"

"No. Good odds I survive."

"Gonna use that Dark Magic to do it?" George asked from Fred's other side.

"Or I could summon an army of snakes to help me through the maze. They could attack the other champions on command." She joked. "If only Harry hadn't killed that basilisk two years ago, I could have used it to win tonight."

Mrs. Weasley didn't seem happy to think about the Chamber of Secrets, but the rest of the group gave approving chuckles. "Think you could find another one by tonight?" George asked.

"Yeah, I'll pop into Hogsmeade and check the Illegal and Deadly Animals pet shop that Hagrid told me about." said Callie, smiling. She wasn't nervous anymore. She felt better than she had in weeks.


	11. The Storm

At the feast that night, Callie had to sit with the Slytherins. She kept waving at her Gryffindor friends and trying to ignore the fact that Harry was barely eating. He was nervous and she still wasn't. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. After the fifth course, Dumbledore stood and silence filled the hall. "Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes' time, I will be asking you to make your way to the Quidditch filed for the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr. Bagman down to the stadium now."

The champions left the Great Hall to a myriad of applause. Fred rushed after Callie and wrapped her in a hug. "Good luck, cute duck."

"'Cute duck?' That's not a good one." She complained, lightly.

"I know. I was trying to think of a better one, but I kept getting sidetracked by worry."

"Nothing's gonna happen to me, Freddie. I'm gonna survive, if nothing else."

Fred looked back at the Gryffindor table, where his family and Hermione were watching with intense interest, then looked back at Callie. "You better survive." He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. Callie was shocked as whoops and hollers exploded across the Great Hall, but then Fred pulled back and pushed her toward the doors.

The Quidditch pitch was now completely taken up by the large hedges of the maze, it was almost completely unrecognizable. They stopped right in front of a large gap which was the entrance to the maze. They waited in front of the gap until the stadium filled in with people. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick walked up and said that they'd be patrolling around the outside of the maze and if the champions ran into any trouble they'd just need to send red sparks into the air. Bagman then started to address the audience. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! In first place, with eighty-eight points, Miss Calidara Malfoy of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Tied for second place, with eighty-five points each- Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter, both of Hogwarts School! In third place, with eighty points- Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute! And in fourth place- Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy! So... on my whistle, Calidara! Three- two- one-"

A short whistle blast made Callie take off running into the gap. It didn't take long for the shadows cast by the high hedges to create so much darkness that she had to pull her wand and use  _Lumos_ to see. Callie took the right, determined to just stay alive and not worry so much about getting to the middle of the maze as fast as possible. She kept to a right-is-right mentality, turning as soon as she saw a dead end, but she was finding only hedges. She hadn't come upon anything and that was disconcerting. Eventually, she came upon what she recognized as a Blast-Ended Skrewt. Because, of course Hagrid put his hybrid creatures in the bloody maze. Callie dodged it, shooting an  _Immobulus_ at it to keep it at bay while she ran. It wasn't long until a scream went out across the stadium. It was Fleur.

Callie felt she was getting about okay, but suddenly, she stopped. She felt like all of her thoughts, her worries, her anger were all being wiped away from her.  _Take a right, then go straight._

She shook her head, trying to get control of herself back. Someone was trying to Imperius her. She refused to do as she was told. She took a left, then another left. She heard a scuffle close by but didn't stop. She had to keep going. She found herself in front of a golden mist hanging a few inches above the ground and when she walked through it, the world seemed to turn upside down. "Limbo Mist." She told herself, as the blood seemed to rush to her brain. But she knew it was illusion. Completely false. "Just... move... forward." She grunted out, before making herself move. Suddenly the world righted itself. She ran forward and found herself in the middle of the maze, the Triwizard Cup gleaming on a plinth a hundred yards away. 

Across the way, she could see two dark figures arriving at the same time as her. She had come into this just hoping to survive but being so close to winning and seeing the others arrive, too... it upset her. She ran for the Cup, as did Cedric and Harry. They were both taller than her, both had longer legs, there was no possible way she'd get there before them, but she had to try. 

"Cedric! On your left!" Harry called out and Callie noticed the spider just as Cedric tripped to get out of its way. It was an acromantula, probably one of Aragog's children, bearing down on Cedric. Callie immediately abandoned all thought of getting the cup, pointing her wand at the spider and yelling ' _Stupefy!'_  Between her and Harry, who was grabbed by the spider and dropped twelve feet to the ground, and eventually Cedric, they were able to Stun the spider. Callie helped Harry to his feet, looking down at his bleeding leg. They both looked at Cedric, who was standing literally two feet in front of the Cup. "Take it, then. Go on, take it. You're there." Harry panted out.

But Cedric didn't move. He merely stood there, looking at the two Fourth Years. He turned to look at the cup with longing, but turned back and shook his head. "You take it, Harry. You should win. That's twice you've saved my neck in here."

"That's not how it's supposed to work. The one who reaches the cup first gets the points. That's you. I'm telling you. I'm not going to win any races on this leg. You and Callie can run it out, but I'm pretty sure you'd beat her in a foot race, too."

Cedric took a few steps closer to Harry and Callie, away from the Cup, shaking his head. "No." he said.

"Stop being noble." Callie snapped.

"Just take it, then we can get out of here." said Harry, irritably.

"You told me about the dragons. I would've gone down in the first task if you hadn't told me what was coming."

"We had help on that, too. You helped me with the egg- we're square." Harry said, trying to mop up his bloody leg with his robes.

"I had help on the egg in the first place."

"We're still square." Harry said, testing putting his weight on the bum leg.

Cedric kept trying to get Harry to take the cup and Harry kept trying to get Cedric to and Callie was tempted to just walk up to take it, herself, but that wouldn't be the noble thing to do and suddenly she knew what they needed to do. "All three of us." She said. 

"What?" The boys said, turning to her.

"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll all tie for it."

"You- you sure?" Cedric asked.

"Yeah." said Harry. "That's a good idea. Yeah... we've helped each other out, haven't we? We all got here. Let's just take it together."

"You're on. Let's help get him over there." Cedric said to Callie, who wrapped one of Harry's arms around her shoulders. Cedric took Harry's other arm and they all approached the cup. 

"On three, right?" said Harry.

"One- two- three-" Callie counted. All three grasped the cup. Instantly, Callie felt a jerk someplace behind her navel. Her feet left the ground. She couldn't unclench the hand holding the Triwizard Cup; it was pulling her onward in a howl of wind and swirling color, Cedric and Harry at her sides.

When their feet finally touched touched ground, they all fell over. As Cedric helped Harry up on his injured leg, Callie looked around. "Where are we?" Harry said. They had left the grounds of Hogwarts, traveled possibly hundreds of miles and they were standing in the midst of an overgrown graveyard. Callie's stomach twisted into knots as she looked around at the gravestones and a large old house on a hill not too far away.

"Did anyone tell  _you_  the Cup was a Portkey?" Cedric asked, looking down at the Triwizard Cup.

As both of the Fourth Years shook their heads, Cedric suggested they take their wands out to prepare for anything. "Let's just grab the Cup again and go back." Callie suggested. There was something not right here. Something very wrong balancing on the back of her mind. 

"Someone's coming." Harry said, suddenly. 

The three of them watched, squinting in the darkness, as a figure drew near them, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Callie could tell that it was carrying something in its arms and looking at the bundle in its arms filled her with a strange feeling of comfortable terror, like she was being faced with a friendly monster that might snap at any time but which she loved regardless. The figure stopped 6 feet away from them, and they all seemed to stare at each other. Suddenly, Harry dropped his wand and clutched his face, his knees buckling as he fell to the ground. Callie knew what was happening, she could feel the swell of darkness crashing over her like a wave. She was reminded of the Forbidden Forest in year one, of meeting Quirrel and her father, the drowning, tight feeling in her chest was undeniable but she took a deep breath and used Occlumency to get past it just in time to hear a high, cold voice say, " _Kill the spare."_

A swishing noise as a wand was pulled and a second voice, which screeched the words into the night: " _Avada Kedavra!_ "

Callie shrieked as green light blazed across the graveyard and she heard the sickening thud of Cedric Diggory hitting the ground. She'd never felt hysterical before, but as she looked down at the body of the seventeen year old Hufflepuff boy, lying lifeless next to her friend who was still in great pain, Callie couldn't stop herself screaming. She screamed without ceasing until the short man in the cloak set down his bundle, lit his wand and wrenched her wand out of her hand. He dragged her to a stone cross as Harry stared into Cedric's lifeless eyes. He pointed his wand at her and muttered ' _Silencio'_  and her hysteria went mute. 

She was still screaming as the man conjured ropes and tied her to the stone cross and she continued trying to make noise as the man tied Harry to a marble headstone which bore the name TOM RIDDLE. Callie's wand was shoved into the man's robes and Harry's was on the ground at Cedric's feet. A giant snake slithering across the grass in the graveyard made her stop screaming and she knew exactly what was in the bundle as the man pushed a large stone cauldron to Harry's feet. She could hear sloshing in the cauldron and she could only imagine what was in there. The man lit a fire under the cauldron as the bundle started to stir. As steam quickly started to fill the area over the cauldron of boiling liquid, the cold voice called out from the bundle. " _Harry! Calidara!"_

The surface of the water went alight with sparks. "It is ready, Master. Which one, Master?" 

" _Both._ _Now..._ " said the cold voice.

The man pulled open the robes on the ground and Harry let out a yell that was muffled by the wad of black fabric in his mouth. Callie couldn't tell if it was worse to see her father on the back of Quirrel's head, or as a hairless, scaly-looking creature the size of a crouched human child. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face was flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes. Callie could almost hear Harry hoping for it to drown as the man in the hood dropped it into the bubbling cauldron.

She was having to work hard to push down the darkness, now, focusing so hard that she didn't even realize that she had begun silently screaming again. 

The man raised his wand and spoke, but he seemed just as frightened as Callie and Harry were. His voice shook as he said, " _Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"_

"No!" She tried to shout, but nothing came out. "Please, no!" The surface of the grave at Harry's feet cracked and Callie watched as a fine dust rose into the air and fell into the cauldron, which hissed and sent sparks into all directions and turned a vivid blue color that reminded her of a poisonous frog.

The man began to whimper as he pulled a long, thin, shining silver dagger from inside his cloak. His voice broke into petrified sobs. " _Flesh- of the servant- w-willingly given- you will- revive- your master."_

"Stop!" She didn't scream as he stretched his right hand out in front of him. Callie noticed then that he was missing a finger and put it together that she was looking at Peter Pettigrew and he was about to cut off his hand. She flinched as he started to scream. The hand fell into the cauldron and the potion became a burning red. 

He moved to her, whimpering loudly. " _Bl-blood of th-the daughter... coercively seized... you will... restore your father."_ The silver dagger pierced her right bicep and she tried to scream again, but still nothing came out. He collected her blood in a glass vial and poured it into the cauldron, which turned a deep purple. Then he staggered to Harry and did the same, first saying, " _B-blood of the enemy... forcibly taken... you will... resurrect your foe."_  The potion in the cauldron sent off sparks so bright that nothing else could be seen and nothing seemed to happen, but then, suddenly the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron, instead, obliterating everything in front of them so Callie couldn't see anything except the vapor hanging in the air.

But then, through the mist, Callie saw, with that same strange comfortable terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from the cauldron. "Robe me." said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and the rat, sobbing and moaning and still cradling his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robes from the ground, got to his feet, reached up and pulled them one-handed over his master's head.

The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry... and Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils... Lord Voldemort had risen again.

The comfortable terror took up residence in her lungs, making it harder to breathe as her father examined his new vessel. She could see the horror on Harry's face as Voldemort pulled a wand out of his robes and used it to send Pettigrew flying into the gravestone Harry was tied to. Voldemort pressed his ugly, long, white finger to Pettigrew's Dark Mark and Callie saw it turn jet black. Voldemort looked to the stars. "How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it? And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?" He mused. He wasn't talking to Pettigrew or Harry or her as he paced, he was talking to himself, likely the only one he truly trusted. 

He turned to speechify to Harry, explaining that he was standing on the grave of Voldemort's father, Callie's grandfather, 'A Muggle and a fool' who had his uses just like Harry's Muggle mother. Then he started to talk about the house on the hill. It was where Tom Riddle lived. Voldemort's mother was a witch in town, who fell in love with him, but he abandoned her when she revealed the truth of the magic. Voldemort told of being born in an orphanage, of his mother dying in childbirth, but he didn't sound sad about it. Even when he mentioned he was being sentimental, he didn't  _sound_  sentimental. "I suppose my daughter's not heard these stories before, either."

Callie was shocked that he'd turned those red eyes on her. She thought, perhaps, he'd forgotten she was there. The comfortable terror leaned more toward comfort as his pacing brought him to stop in front of her and her brown eyes locked with his red ones. She was inexplicably reminded of  _her_  Muggle parents, of picnics and science books and kisses on scraped knees. "That's right, Calidara. I am your family now."

"Stay out of my head!" She silently demanded. He had to be influencing her emotions, the comfort in that comfortable terror. Perhaps her Occlumency was failing her.

"And here comes my other family." He cooed, turning as the air was suddenly full of the swishing of cloaks. Wizards were suddenly Apparating into the graveyard, all of them hooded and masked. And one by one they moved forward... slowly, cautiously, as though they could hardly believe their eyes. Voldemort stood in silence, waiting for them, then one of the Death Eaters fell to his knees, crawled toward Voldemort, and kissed the hem of his black robes. Each of the Death Eaters surrounding them followed suit before backing away and standing in a silent circle. They left gaps in the circle, though, like they were expecting more to show up. Voldemort didn't seem to think more were coming, thought. He looked around at the hooded faces. 

"Welcome, Death Eaters. Thirteen years... thirteen years since last we met. Yet you answer my call as though it were yesterday... We are still united under the Dark Mark, then!  _Or are we?"_  He pulled back and sniffed the air, his slit-like nostrils widening. "I smell guilt. There is a stench of guilt upon the air." He looked around the circle and Callie could tell that each member longed, but didn't dare, to step back from him. "I see you all, whole and healthy, with your powers intact- such prompt appearances!- and I ask myself... why did this band of wizards never come to the aid of their master, to whom they swore eternal loyalty?"

No one spoke. No one moved except Pettigrew, who was still writhing upon the ground. "And I answer myself... they must have believed me broken, they thought I was gone. They slipped back among my enemies and they pleaded innocence, and ignorance, and bewitchment... And then I ask myself, but how could they have believed I would not rise again? They, who knew the steps I took, long ago, to guard myself against mortal death? They, who had seen proofs of the immensity of my power in the times when I was mightier than any wizard living? And I answer myself, perhaps they believed a still greater power could exist, one that could vanquish even Lord Voldemort... perhaps they now pay allegiance to another... perhaps that champion of commoners, of Mudbloods and Muggles, Albus Dumbledore?"

The Death Eaters responded to that, some shaking their heads, some muttering, but all showing their disgust at being suggested to be in league with Dumbledore. Voldemort ignored them. "It is a disappointment to me... I confess myself disappointed..."

One of the men suddenly threw himself forward, breaking the circle. He begged forgiveness from his spot at Voldemort's feet. The Dark Lord laughed, a sound that seemed almost warm to Callie and she wasn't sure what was wrong with her because that was the coldest laughter she'd ever heard, made colder by the fact that he put  _Crucio_  on the wizard at his feet. After he was done, the wizard lay flat on the ground gasping. "Get up, Avery. Stand up. You ask for forgiveness? I do not forgive. I do not forget. Thirteen long years... I want thirteen years' repayment before I forgive you. Wormtail here has paid some of his debt already, have you not, Wormtail?" Voldemort turned to Pettigrew. "You returned to me, not out of loyalty, but out of fear of your old friends. You deserve this pain, Wormtail. You know that, don't you?"

Pettigrew agreed that he was worthless and traitorous, but Voldemort rewarded him for his sacrifice by creating a gleaming silver replica of a human hand, which attached itself to Pettigrew's bloody stump. Pettigrew thanked Voldemort and promised that his loyalty would never waver ever again and then he took his place in the circle. Voldemort followed, then turned to the man on the rat's right side. "Lucius, my slippery friend." He whispered and Callie's stomach clenched, tightly. She knew it. She knew it! "I am told that you have not renounced the old ways, thought to the world you present a respectable face. You are still ready to take the lead in a spot of Muggle-torture, I believe? You took control of my child, yet you never tried to find  _me_ , Lucius... Your exploits at the Quidditch World Cup were fun, I daresay... but might not your energies have been better directed toward finding and aiding your master? You had my blood, could you think of no way to use her to locate me?"

"My Lord, I was constantly on the alert." came Lucius' voice from beneath the hood. "Had there been any sign from you, any whisper of your whereabouts, I would have been at your side immediately, nothing could have prevented me-"

"And yet you ran from my Mark, when a faithful Death Eater sent it into the sky last summer?" Voldemort interrupted lazily, causing Lucius to stop talking. "Yes, I know all about that, Lucius... You have disappointed me. You are redeemed only by your prescience in saving my daughter from those Muggles... I expect more faithful service in the future."

He continued around the circle, addressing some names she didn't recognize like Macnair and the imprisoned Lestranges, and some that were painfully familiar like Crabbe, Goyle and Nott, before coming to a large gap in the circle. "And here we have six missing Death Eaters... three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return... he will pay." Callie thought of Karkaroff's fear, of her taunting him and playing it up worse. "One, who I believe has left me forever... he will be killed, of course." 

Snape. Working at Hogwarts must have been the absolute worst thing he could have done in Voldemort's eyes. "And one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service." Voldemort continued. "He is at Hogwarts, that faithful servant, and it was through his efforts that our young friends arrived here tonight." 

Lucius begged for an explanation, how Voldemort came to return, and Voldemort launched into a long-winded explanation of Lily Potter giving Harry a special protection by sacrificing herself to save him and how his curse reflected back off of Harry and hit him, he was left without a body but still a live thanks to his experiments with immortality. He spoke of settling in a forest and waiting for one of his followers to come find him to help him but no one came. He had one power left, the ability to possess the bodies of others, and he used it on animals. Snakes were his preference. He told the Death Eaters about Quirrel and the Philosopher's Stone, about being thwarted by Harry and about how, if Harry hadn't stopped him Callie was prepared to try. "My own daughter. Of course, she had not yet met me, not really. I can already feel her heart wavering." 

Harry's eyes had gone wide when Voldemort said that Callie had made it through to the last chamber of the Philosopher's Stone and they silently begged her to deny what Voldemort was saying, but she couldn't move. The Death Eaters were staring at her. 

Voldemort continued, saying he had gone back to the forest, Wormtail had found him, Bertha Jorkins stumbled upon them and was tortured to tell them about the Triwizard Tournament and another secret that he didn't specify. He said that Wormtail had followed instructions to get him into the rudimentary body that Callie and Harry had seen him in earlier. He explained the spell that brought him back to his old body and the pieces he took from each of Pettigrew, his dead father, Harry and Callie. "I only needed the blood of one of them, but they both made it here, so we took the blood of both."

Voldemort said that, using Bertha Jorkins information, he stationed his one faithful Death Eater at Hogwarts and that servant put both Harry and Callie's names in the Goblet of Fire. His servant made certain that one of them won the tournament, that one of them touched the cup first. "What luck I had that they touched the cup at the same time, the Cup which my Death Eater had turned into a Portkey, which brought them here, beyond the reach of Dumbledore's help and protection, and into my waiting arms. And here  _he_  is... the boy you all believed had been my downfall." He moved slowly forward and turned to face Harry. He raised his wand. " _Crucio_!"

Callie tried to scream for her friend and she was getting tired of nothing coming out of her mouth, when the the Death Eaters started to laugh at Harry's pain. Voldemort said he was going to prove that Harry only beat him by lucky chance and he was going to prove that by killing him, right here in front of all of them and he finished it by saying. "Now untie him, Wormtail, and give him back his wand."

Wormtail did what he was told, pulling the black fabric out of Harry's mouth. Callie could see Harry's injured leg shaking and knew that he couldn't run if he tried. Voldemort asked if he had been taught how to duel and then he went through the etiquette. "We bow to each other, Harry." said Voldemort, bending a little, but keeping his snakelike face turned up to Harry. "Come, the niceties must be observed... Dumbledore would like you to show manners... Bow to death, Harry." Harry didn't bow. She could see that he knew that Voldemort was playing games and was determined not to participate. Voldemort demanded it and used his wand to force Harry's body into a bent position. It made Callie a bit sick.

"Very good. And now you face me, like a man... straight-back and proud, the way your father died... and now- we duel." Harry fell to the ground as he got hit with another Cruciatus Curse, and then Voldemort stopped and Harry scrambled to his feet. "A little break, a little pause... That hurt, didn't it, Harry? You don't want me to do that again, do you?" Callie could see that Harry's mind was telling him he was about to die, but he wasn't going to play Voldemort's little game before he dies. "I asked you whether you want me to do that again. Answer me!  _Imperio_!" 

There was silence in the graveyard as Voldemort spoke directly to Harry's mind before Harry shouted, "I WON'T!"

"You won't? You won't say no? Harry, obedience is a virtue I need to teach you before you die... Perhaps another little dose of pain?" Voldemort raised his wand, but Harry flung himself sideways onto the ground and rolled behind the marble headstone with 'Tom Riddle' etched into it. The curse missed and hit the headstone instead. Voldemort started walking toward the headstone. "We are not playing hide-and-seek, Harry. You can not hide from me. Does this mean you are tired of our duel? Does this mean that you would prefer me to finish it now, Harry? Come out, Harry... come out and play, then... it will be quick... it might even be painless... I would not know... I have never died..."

Callie was slightly surprised when Harry stood, his wand gripped tightly in his hand, and threw himself around the headstone, facing Voldemort. Voldemort was not surprised, so as Harry shouted " _Expelliarmus!_ " Voldemort cried, " _Avada Kedavra!_ " Green light shot out of Voldemorts wand just as a jet of red light blasted from Harry's. They met in midair and a bright, deep gold light issued from where they met. Callie watched as Harry and Voldemort were both raised into the air, their wands still connected by a threat of shimmering golden light. The golden thread splintered, causing a thousand more beams to arc over them until they were in a golden, dome-shaped web, a cage of light, which the Death Eaters circled around.

Voldemort demanded that the Death Eaters not interfere, but Callie thought she heard astonishment in his voice. And then an unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air, but Callie couldn't tell where it was coming from or what it was. She did see several golden beads of energy moving back and forth on the thread connecting the wands. They moved toward Harry, but then, it was as if Harry had pushed them back toward Voldemort. Once the first bead connected with Voldemort's wand, it began to emit echoing screams of pain, then a dense smoky had flew out of the tip of it and vanished... the ghost of the hand he had made Wormtail... more shouts of pain... and then something larger pulled from the end of Voldemort's wand. The shadow of Cedric Diggory stood up, looked around the web of golden light and said, "Hold on, Harry." in a distant and echoing voice.

More screams, then an old man popped out who said something Callie couldn't hear, then another person; a witch. "Don't let go, now! Don't let him get you, Harry- don't let go!" Her echo-y voice encouraged. She and the other two shadowy figures began to pace around the inner walls of the golden web, while the Death Eaters flitted around the outside of it... and Voldemort's dead victims whispered as they circled. Words of encouragement to Harry and words of anger to Voldemort. Callie couldn't hear most of them, but she could tell by the tone. 

Callie gasped as the smoky shadow of a young woman with long hair fell to the ground, straightened up and looked at Harry. It was his mother and she was beautiful. Callie heard her say, "Your father" and "Hold on." and soon enough, she was looking at a ghostly figure that looked just like Harry. Callie couldn't hear a word James Potter said to his son at first, but she saw Harry respond and pointedly look at her and she was certain she saw James say the words "She'll be fine." Cedric whispered to Harry next and Harry responded with "I will." and then Harry yelled, "NOW!" and he pulled his wand off from the golden thread. The song ended, the web cage disappeared, and Harry ran as the shadow ghosts closed in around Voldemort. The Death Eaters tried to stop him, tried to stun him, but Harry dodged and ran and used the headstones to protect him and Callie watched him grab Cedric's arm, point his wand at the Cup and shout " _Accio!"._

Voldemort screamed in fury as Cedric and Harry's bodies disappeared from the graveyard. Lucius was suddenly in front of her, pulling her down from the stone cross she was tied to. "Speak when spoken to and treat the Dark Lord with the reverence he deserves." He growled into her ear as he prodded her forward by his hand twisted in her hair. "My Lord, Potter may have escaped but we still have your daughter!"

Voldemort turned his attention to her, his scarlet eyes focused on her face. His fury remained on his face for a moment before he gave a small smile. "I've waited so many years to be face to face with you, Calidara. Since I first felt you growing within your mother's womb, I've envisioned what you could become under my guidance." She just glared at him. "Oh, yes.  _Speak_."

"You envisioned what I could do for you, you mean." She snapped and the hand in her hair twisted tighter.

"Forgive me, Dark Lord. I haven't had very long with her, not nearly long enough to undo the damage those Muggles my sister left her with did. She's far too headstrong for her own good."

"Miranda was headstrong, as well. We fixed that, didn't we?"

"Master, Crouch said she cannot be placed under the Imperius Curse." Peter Pettigrew almost whined as he said the words.

"No one controls me but me." She spat, but the back of her mind was wondering what the hell Crouch had to do with anything.

"Afraid to be controlled, are you?" Voldemort asked. "Imperius is but one way to control a witch, Calidara. Have you ever experienced the Cruciatus Curse? I could put you in such pain as you've never felt, put you in a world of hurt, my dear child, until you agree to whatever I ask. Or I could give you anything you've ever wanted."

"I want nothing to do with-"

"You haven't even heard what I ask of you, my daughter." Voldemort pushed wisps of her hair out of the way. "All I ask is that you, my blood, stand with me. Give me an opportunity to give you everything you deserve."

"Bite me!" She spat, but she couldn't completely ignore that part of her that felt like that might be an okay idea. "I deserve my parents back. I deserve my friends and boyfriend to not have to worry about Death Eaters and Dark Magic. I deserve-"

"I can promise his safety." Voldemort said, appeasingly. "Fred Weasley, your blood traitor boyfriend, I can give you his safety and your own."

It scared Callie how much that promise swayed her. Suddenly, she could imagine herself with that mark on her arm, kneeling at her father's feet with the other Death Eaters, doing horrible things, all in the name of keeping Fred safe. "He'd hate me." She whispered, tears popping up in her eyes.

"But I would never lay a hand upon him. I'd tell all of my followers the same. He would be safe." 

"They'd all hate me. Everyone except... except Draco and Lucius." She was only vaguely aware of the hand in her hair now. She was more aware of her father's red eyes staring down at her, of the Death Eaters behind their masks.

"And do you need more than them? More than this family of Death Eaters?"

"Sometimes, all you have are the people you  _love_." 

"And could you subject yourself to solitude, to ostracization, to hatred and fear..." Voldemort waved at Lucius, who released her hair and stepped backward away from her. "If it left you with the power to keep those you care for  _safe_?" He put his hand on her chin and tipped her chin to look into his eyes. She could feel how deep her frown must've been. Tears were flowing, unimpeded, down her cheeks and wetting her father's fingers. 

For one very scary moment, Calidara Malfoy thought she might say 'yes'. She thought she might bow, kiss Voldemort's robes, become the Melanie her father and uncle wanted her to be. She thought she might be able to enjoy that comfortable terror on the daily basis. She saw herself as the boggart showed her in year three, angry and evil with a deep red Dark Mark on her left arm. And then she thought of her form as  _Riddikulus_. There would be no Callie Weasley of any kind, ever if she let her father consume her personality. "You'll kill them, anyway. Because they'll fight you. My blood-traitor boyfriend and his family and  _all_  of my friends, they'll fight you!" The hand in her hair was back almost immediately and her uncle pulled her back away from Voldemort.

"We'll see how you feel about your answer tomorrow. Lucius, Avery, take her inside. Lock her down." The Death Eater who begged forgiveness earlier grabbed one of Callie's arms and Lucius grabbed the other, forcing her toward the large house. 

"Weasley." Lucius growled under his breath. "How could you fall for a Weasley?"

"Bite me." She spat back.

"How did you let this happen, Avery?"

"Me? It's not my faul-"

Lucius stopped and glared at Avery. "If your son had done his job, she wouldn't even be  _friends_  with those disgraceful destitutes. She should have been completely caught up in your boy's French act, influenced to our side."

Callie felt sick, sicker than when she watched the duel, or Peter Pettigrew cutting his own hand off. "I'm gonna throw up."

"Shut up! Keep walking." Avery hissed, throwing a look over his shoulder at Voldemort preaching at the Death Eaters. "He tried! Lucius, my son gave his best, but she was already-"

"I knew there was something off about him and you can bet my friends saw it, too! He's not even French, is he?" She growled.

"Clever girl. No, he's just been living in France since Avery managed to get out of being sent to Azkaban thirteen years ago."

"Lucas was only four when we moved and took his mother's name, so he developed the accent and learned French easily." Avery said, pulling her along toward the house again. 

"You sent him to Hogwarts with the Beauxbatons delegation to get to me?"

"Lucius didn't give us much choice." Avery grumbled.

"He was supposed to make you fall for him, teach you how to think right, but he  _failed_." Lucius sneered. 

"It's not his fault. She was playing along just fine until the Weasley boy-"

"You don't talk about him!" She exclaimed, trying to pull her arm out of the man's grip.

"Settle down, girl. We'll talk about the Weasley boy all we want." Lucius said, pushing her into the Riddle House and into a room with a single high window. "The Dark Lord wants you, girl, and he will have you. If incentives, if power isn't enough to make a Death Eater of you, then maybe pain will. Maybe you won't be so resistant to being put under Imperius if the Dark Lord is the one cursing you. Eventually, it took his power to keep Miranda down, too."

Callie glared up at him. "You were too weak to keep her under, or she was too strong to stay down?" She exchanged a sneer with him. "Eventually, she even broke out from under  _his_  Imperius Curse. So will I."

"You are nothing compared to Miranda. The work she did for the Dark Lord- she was beyond powerful." Avery cut in.

"And I'm a product of her power, and your Dark Lord's. I will overcome."

"Not tonight." He sneered, pulling the door closed. " _Colloportus!"_ He muttered and the door locked.

She yanked on the handle as hard as she could and listened as the Death Eaters walked away. She looked around the room, then sat in the corner for what she counted as an hour. She could hear Voldemort growling at the Death Eaters. He was blaming them for Harry's escape. He was supposed to die, no one was supposed to know that Voldemort had returned. Once everything had calmed down, once she couldn't hear her father threatening anyone, she became Kiki and climbed up the wall to the high window. Kiki ambled through the house, quickly and quietly, until she found a room where Pettigrew was sleeping on the floor in a nest of newspapers. Callie's wand was sticking out of the pocket of his robes and Kiki took it, easily, putting it in her mouth before rushing out of the room.


	12. Hogwarts and Hospital Wings

It was almost a week later when she slogged onto the campus, her robes in strips and her body damn-near destroyed. She was almost to the other side of the lake when a couple of first years noticed her. One ran as fast as he could into the castle and the other ran to help her walk, wrapping her arm around his neck and supporting her as she continued trudging forward. He asked her a million questions about the tournament and Cedric Diggory and where she'd been, but she didn't answer. She didn't make a single sound of response.

 

Madam Pomfrey took one look at her and knew better than to ask. But Dumbledore, who rushed in while Pomfrey was pushing a Draught of Pure Hydration in her face, didn't hesitate to ask her all of the questions the first year had, plus a few more. She didn't respond, at all, until Madam Pomfrey walked out to get her something to eat. "He's back." She whispered, sadly. "He's back and no one is preparing. I saw on the way in... The Daily Prophet... calling Harry a liar. 'The Boy Who Cried Dark Lord'."

 

"That's not important, right now. How did you escape?"

 

"They didn't know I'm an Animagus. They took me... inside and locked me in a room with just a small, high window..."

 

"You became Kiki and climbed to your safety." The man smiled. "No one expects a student to be on the Animagus Registry."

 

"There's not very many people on the Registry. Most are illegals. Don't think anyone even checks it, these days. My uncle certainly hasn't. Besides, I don't think he actually knows my old last name, which I used to register. He killed the people who gave it to me, but never bothered to learn their names." She took a deep breath. "Of course, I don't have any proof that he's the one who cursed them. The Muggles at the hospital said 'natural causes' but two healers in good health don't just drop dead at the same time of 'natural causes'. But I've no proof. Just like I have no proof that my father's back or my uncle arrived as soon as Voldemort called for the Death Eaters. That he said he'd never been under the curse he used on my mum."

 

Dumbledore put his hand on her shoulder, but it didn't comfort her. "I have to go back there, don't I? Back to the manor."

 

"It is rather unfortunate, Miss Malfoy, that you have no other family to take you in during the summer, but you will have to go back... but there's nothing to say that you must  _stay_. An Animagus with such a strong mind for potions, I'm certain you can find a way to stay off of the radar for a few months without violating the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Magic." Callie nodded. Run away, hide, use potions but no wand magic to survive. She could handle that. She was Miranda Malfoy's daughter. "Get some rest, Callie, and know that I will understand if you don't want to talk to anyone about what happened. Remember what I told you in your first year, why we didn't tell anyone about your being witness to Harry and Quirrel's conflict?"

 

"I already had that thought, sir. But I won't say what Fudge wants me to, either. I won't say anything."

 

Dumbledore nodded and walked out of the hospital wing as Madam Pomfrey walked in with a tray holding a meat pie and a baked potato. 

~~

Callie woke from her nap to someone sitting on her hospital bed. She fluttered her eyes open to see fire-red hair and worried brown eyes. "There's a Fred on my bed." She whispered, lethargically.

 

Fred didn't try to respond in rhyme, leaning forward to wrap his arms around her. "Thought you had died. After what Harry said about-"

 

"I'm okay, Freddie. Really. Just had to... Harry took the portkey. I had to get here on foot."

 

"I can't believe he left you there!" Fred pulled back and looked down at her. "He just  _left_ you with You-Know-Who and a bunch of Death Eaters!"

 

She sat up and looked into his eyes. "He knew they wouldn't hurt me. I'm Voldemort's daughter. They're hoping to turn me. Harry knew that if he stayed, he'd die, but if I stayed... I had an opportunity to get away. And I did. See, I'm here. I'm in one piece. I'm okay." 

 

"How  _did_ you get away?"

 

She looked down. She might need the fail-safe again and she didn't want it getting out that she was an Animagus. "I don't... I  _can't_ talk about it. Just... not yet." 

 

Fred nodded. "Okay. I understand, Cal."

 

"But there's other things I can tell you." Fred's attention was rapt, so she continued. "When I was a first year, when Dumbledore told me about my mum, I realized she must've put a Cognita Charm on me because of the things I just knew since coming to Hogwarts. I was a fair hand at Charms and you know how impatient I am, so I thought maybe I could get all of the information at once instead of waiting for the milestones, you know and it backfired and I got lost, stuck in this place between awake and asleep and the knowledge she had for me. Voldemort knew I was there, at Hogwarts, because he was with Quirrel when Quirrel was told who I am, and he found me, in the in-between place. There was this shock went through me and I couldn't move and he tapped into my darkness. He filled me with this horrid feeling. It's a good thing I was such a good person before he got hold of me, because if it had been my cousin, or one of his friends, they'd have had a lot more darkness.

 

I guess he thought it would entice me, or something but I've hated it. I think the moment I realized I fancied you was the moment you saw me feelin' dark and you offered to sneak me into Quidditch practice to cheer me up, and it worked, but the darkness never  _really_ went away. It's a part of me. So much that when Death Eaters see me, their Dark Marks hurt. It's how I knew about Snape and Karkaroff. It's one of the ways I knew I could trust Sirius Black, because he didn't  _have_ a Dark Mark. He didn't care that I was Voldemort's Daughter, just that I was Miranda Malfoy's." Callie wiped the heel of her palm across her nose and sniffled. "I knew what Snape was, what he used to be, and I demanded an explanation, but he knew that I was vulnerable to Voldemort getting into my head again so he wouldn't tell me until I'd been taught Occlumency. So, to cover for him teaching me how to control my own mind, he made his T.A."

 

"That's why-"

 

"Yeah. It took me years to get good at it, but learning it meant Moody couldn't get in my head, couldn't control me like Lucius and Voldemort did my mum."

 

"You know Moody was actually Barty Crouch Jr. He attacked Moody and I guess he had Barty Crouch Sr. Imperius'd all bloody year."

 

"Until he killed him. Makes sense. Must've been starting to resist. Anyway. Do you remember how, end of my first year, I told you that Harry, Hermione, and Ron thought Snape and I were trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone?"

 

"You called it 'an important thing'."

 

"Right. I was being purposely vague; and you convinced me that I could do the right thing, whatever that might be and I  _thought_ that was going to Dumbledore but he'd just flown off to the Ministry? Well, after that, I decided to stop him myself. I was right behind him through a lot of the tasks, but my chess game took too long. Harry and them were right behind me by the time I got to the room with the mirror. If they walked in on me doing something to hurt Quirrel, they would've thought  _I_  was the evil one, so I hid and... and I watched Quirrel die. It was horrible. It was like his skin burned down to the muscle and bones in some places. Harry passed out. He didn't see it, but  _I_  did. Quirrel's burning away to nothing and my father's screaming at him to kill Harry... and then it was over. Dumbledore and McGonagall rushed in to find Harry passed out next to Quirrel's crispy corpse. Dumbledore knew I was hiding, he knew I'd tried to stop it, but I couldn't- He told me I couldn't tell anybody, said no one else would understand. If it got out, people would think I was working with Quirrel to bring Voldemort back. That's why I lied when you accused me afterward. Dumbledore told me not to tell."

 

Fred wrapped her in a hug again. "Cal, I wouldn't have thought you were working with Quirrel."

 

"I know, but Dumbledore said no one could know. So, I kept it to myself, what I saw... just like the Occlumency lessons and the fact that Sirius Black isn't the crazed Death Eater the Ministry thinks he is. That I met him, out in the Forbidden Forest. That Professor Lupin was a werewolf. I knew long before everyone else, except maybe Hermione. Snape and I were making him Wolfsbane Potion every month." She sniffled. "Oh, and Luc! His father's a Death Eater! He was sent here to seduce me away from you."

 

Fred's eyes narrowed and his neck turned red. "I'll kill him."

 

"Don't worry. He failed. He's probably already dead." 

 

"Head to your Common Room, Weasley. Miss Malfoy needs her rest." Snape seemed to just appear behind the Gryffindor boy.

 

"Are they going to let you go to the Year-End Feast?" Fred asked, standing with her hand in his.

 

"I don't know." She whispered.

 

"I'll save a place for you on the train." He kissed her knuckles, then nodded at Snape before walking away.

 

There was a long moment of silence where her Head of house just stood over her, dark eyes watching her. "You've gone back to him. I saw you on the train, helping Macnair look for me." She whispered. 

 

"I didn't see you." Snape slowly lowered himself to sit in the chair next to her bed. He looked exhausted and just a bit sad.

 

"Well, that  _was_ the point, wasn't it? I was hiding."

 

"How did you manage to hide from us? How did you make it out of Little Hangleton?" Snape looked, for the first time since she met him, unabashedly impressed and shocked by her. "I know how Potter managed; the Priori Incantatem, but how-"

 

"He didn't kill me, when he should have. Guess he wants me by his side for whatever reason. Thought he'd lock me away until he figured out a way to control me. Once I was alone, I turned into my Animagus form and climbed out the window."

 

His facial expression went cold and angry. "You're an Animagus? Since when?" There was an undertone to his words that she couldn't identify.

 

"Third Year Christmas holidays. I'm a-"

 

"That's a very dangerous transformation for you to take on without assistance! You could have permanently disfigured or killed yourself if you'd done a single thing wrong!" The undertone was easy to place after those words. Worry.

 

"Well, I didn't get anything wrong."

 

"You were thirteen years old. You shouldn't have attempted-"

 

"Professor, it's done. I'm an Animagus now. Have been for a year and a half. It saved me in Little Hangleton and that was the point of it. If I weren't a bloody monkey, I'd've been in that house and Voldemort would have broke me down. Hell, Professor, he almost got me to join up in the graveyard after Harry escaped." She cast her eyes down. "He's convincing and he's powerful, and he almost had me believing that it'd be worth it, that he could keep Freddie safe if I... if I bowed and kissed his robes."

 

She cleared her throat. "But I know that  _all_ the people I care about, they're going to defy him. They're gonna fight him and he can't promise the safety of a single one, not and mean it. Just like your friend, Lily." She looked up and caught the flash of sadness in his eyes. "He said he just wanted to kill Harry, not Lily, but she fought him and she died. Not worth it."

 

There was another long moment of silence. "He's asked me to report on you, Potter and Dumbledore. I'm to compile a list of pressure points for him to use against you. Luckily, you've proved yourself resistant to  _Imperius_." He sighed, heavily. "Lucius is going to attempt to make you believe you've been Confunded."

 

"Do you, by any chance, have a polyjuice potion set up? One I can just add hair to and disappear with?"

 

Snape smirked and pulled a large bottle out of his robe pocket. "Confiscated it from Barty Crouch Jr. on the night of the third task. I had a feeling you might need it. You don't want to spend the whole of summer holidays as a monkey, do you?"

 

She took the bottle, grimacing a bit at the sludgy substance. "Much as I enjoy my tail, I prefer to be a human." Callie looked at the bottle for a few moments before tucking the bottle into her robes. "Professor... I'm... I'm terrified."

 

"Understandable. The return of the Dark Lord is something we've all been dreading."

 

"It's not that. I mean, that's part of it, but...  _he_ didn't scare me. Not like he should've. He felt... he felt a bit like home. Like that bit of dark power he left in me wanted to be with him again, you know? I think part of me wants to be at his side."

 

"That's not you." Snape hesitated a moment before reaching forward to pat her hand. "You are the one who denied him and ran. You're caring and warm, and you ran because you couldn't reconcile being a Death Eater against your personality. The part of you that felt intrigued by your proximity to the Dark Lord, that's  _him_ , and you have learned how to push him down."

 

It was the softest Severus Snape had ever been with her and, as he stood, she felt a little less nervous about running away from Wiltshire and spending the summer hiding. "I'll ask Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey about letting you go down for the feast. You shouldn't be held back from it."

 

"Thank you, Professor."

~~

People stared at her when she entered the Great Hall for the Leaving Feast, but none approached except Harry. She could see Hermione arguing quietly as George and Ron held Fred in his seat. Harry was looking at her like she might break under his gaze. "Are you all right?"

 

"Yeah. Mostly. Already having nightmares, but..." she muttered.

 

"I'm sorry I left you behind. I-"

 

"You got Ced back to his parents, right?" Harry nodded. "And I got myself back. Nothin' to be sorry on."

 

"I left you with Voldemort!" He whispered, furiously.

 

"Who spent all his time with me tryin' to convince me to switch sides, Harry. He didn't hurt me. It's not a big deal that you left. You survived and that's the important-"

 

"You could've died or, or been Imperiused or-"

 

"Harry, stop. I escaped.  _You_ escaped. We're alive to fight Voldemort another day. And we will. Us and Dumbledore and Snuffles and Snape... we're gonna put up a hell of a fight, Harry, because Voldemort killed your parents and a Death Eater killed mine and they've worked to control us but we will not be controlled. We're fighters." Tears popped up in her eyes at her passionate words. "We're fighters." She repeated in a soft whisper which seemed to overwhelm Harry, too, because he wrapped his arms around her and she felt a very distinct sob loose from his throat into her robes.

 

When he pulled back, his eyes were wet. "You best believe we're fighters." He agreed, his voice croaking. He wiped his eyes and nodded. "Gotta get back." 

 

She nodded and walked to the end of the Slytherin table, exchanging a look with Snape as she took her seat. At the Gryffindor table, Fred was speaking with Harry, animatedly, but quietly, but stopped when Dumbledore stood. "The end of another year. There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight, but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here..." He gestured at the Hufflepuff table. "...enjoying our feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses, to Cedric Diggory."

 

Everyone did, the benches scraping as everyone in the Hall stood, and raised their goblets and echoed as one, "Cedric Diggory."

 

"Cedric was a person who exemplified many of the qualities that distinguish Hufflepuff House." Dumbledore continued after everyone sat down. "He was a good and loyal friend, a hard worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not. I think that you have the right, therefore, to know exactly how it came about." Callie's eyes went wide. Was he about to tell this group of children what happened in Little Hangleton? "Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."

 

A panicked whisper swept the Great Hall. People were staring at Dumbledore in disbelief and horror, others were looking at her or Harry. Dumbledore was completely calm even though Callie felt a panic spurring her breath on as people stared at her. "The Ministry of Magic does not wish me to tell you this. It is possible that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so- either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or because they think I should not tell you so, young as you are. It is my belief, however, that the truth is generally preferable to lies, and that any attempt to pretend that Cedric died as the result of an accident, or some sort of blunder of his own, is an insult to his memory. There is somebody else who much be mentioned in connection with Cedric's death. I am talking, of course, about Harry Potter.

 

Harry Potter managed to escape Lord Voldemort. He risked his own life to return Cedric's body to Hogwarts. He showed, in every respect, the sort of bravery that few wizards have ever shown in facing Lord Voldemort, and for this, I honor him." Dumbledore raised his goblet to Harry. Callie was one of the only Slytherins who stood and honored Harry, most stayed in their seats. "The Triwizard Tournament's aim was to further and promote magical understanding. In the light of what has happened- of Lord Voldemort's return- such ties are more important than ever before."

 

Dumbledore looked around at the delegations from the other schools. Callie noticed that Karkaroff and Lucas Avery were conspicuously missing from the Great Hall. "Every guest in this Hall will be welcomed back here at any time, should they wish to come. I say to you all, once again- in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.

 

It is my belief- and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken- that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder. A week ago, a student was taken from our midst. Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."     

~~

Callie felt a knot of anger in her stomach as she walked into the Slytherin Common Room and was immediately blocked by Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. "Move, or I'll move you." She said, quietly.

 

"How was the family reunion?" Draco sneered.

 

She bit her lip. "Exactly how I imagined it might go. Your fathers all showed up..." Her eyes glided over the other students in the common room. "...and fathers of others of our number... and they grovelled." Draco's eyes flashed anger, but he didn't say anything. "Begged forgiveness and lied about how they tried to find him and kissed his robes. Would you kiss his robes, Draco? Gregory, Vincent? What do you think?" They just glared and she moved around them. " _I_  didn't kiss his robes." She said, before walking into the girls' dorms. 

 

Harry came up to her in the Great Hall at breakfast and cleared his throat. "So, uh, Cedric's parents didn't want the gold. I don't need it."

 

"Neither do I." Callie answered.

 

"Are you sure? I didn't think you'd be wanting to keep using Lucius Malfoy's-"

 

"I have my own gold and..." She looked around the Great Hall and leaned forward. "...in two years, I'm inheriting a million pounds from my parents' estate. I don't need it." She whispered. "Give it to Fred and George. They could use it to get Weasley's Wizard Wheezes started."

 

"Are- really?"

 

"Really."

 

Callie tried to stand by herself while waiting for the carriages that would take them to Hogsmeade for the Hogwarts express, but Fred and George took it upon themselves to guard her, each standing on one side of her and glaring at anyone who tried to talk to her, except Fleur and Krum. Fleur told her that she saw Luc being pulled into the Forbidden Forest by a hooded figure on the night of the third task. "It was either my uncle or his father, I'm sure. Pulling him off-grounds so that they can Disapparate."

 

"Callie... I 'ope you will forgive my original meanness. I 'ope we can be friends." Fleur offered her hand.

 

Callie nodded and took it. "Of course. I need good friends."

 

Krum didn't do much more than shake her hand. She rode in a carriage with the twins and got onto the train with them. They sat in a compartment together, Fred holding her to his side, protectively. "I don't want you to go back with the Malfoys. Maybe you could come to the Burrow with us." 

 

"No. I  _have_ to go with Lucius, he's my guardian. But I have a plan. I'm gonna run away."

 

"Where to?" The twins asked.

 

"It's better if you don't know. Really. That way no one can torture it out of you." That might've sounded like a joke a week ago, but it definitely wasn't now. Callie noticed Draco, Crabbe and Goyle listening in on the door to another compartment. She and the twins stood to snoop.

 

"Very clever, Granger." said Draco. "So. You caught some pathetic reporter, and Potter's Dumbledore's favorite boy again. Big deal." Draco smirked as he entered what was obviously Harry, Ron and Hermione's compartment. "Trying not to think about it, are we? Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?"

 

"Get out." Harry's voice demanded as Callie and the twins stepped out into the corridor.

 

"You've picked the losing side, Potter! I warned you! I told you you ought to choose your company more carefully, remember? When we met on the train, first day at Hogwarts? I told you not to hang around with riffraff like this! Too late now, Potter! They'll be first to go, now the Dark Lord's back! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first! Well- second- Diggory was the f-" 

 

It was as though someone had exploded a box of fireworks within the compartment as Callie and the twins pulled their wands along with the Gryffindors in the compartment. Callie tried one she'd only read about,  _Anteoculatia_ , but George shouted " _Locomotor Wibbly_ " and Fred did " _Engorgio Skullus_ ". Callie was aiming for Draco, but she hit Gregory Goyle and she wasn't the only one. As they looked down at the trio of Slytherin boys, Callie saw that Goyle had a nasty-looking tail poking out of the back of his robes, which didn't match his new antlers, at all. 

 

"Thought we'd see what those three were up to." said Fred matter-of-factly, stepping onto Goyle and into the compartment. George was careful to tread on Draco as he followed Fred into the compartment. Callie stepped over the boys, but she stepped on Goyle's new tail. 

 

"Interesting effect." said George, looking down at Crabbe. "Who used the Furnunculus Curse?"

 

"Me." said Harry.

 

"Odd. I used Jelly-Legs. Looks as though those two shouldn't be mixed. He seems to have sprouted little tentacles all over his face. Well, let's not leave them here, they don't add much to the decor." Ron, Harry and George rolled, kicked and pushed the unconscious trio out into the corridor as Fred and Callie sat next to Hermione.

 

"Exploding Snap, anyone?" said Fred, pulling out a pack of cards.

 

"I've just realized..." Hermione said, suddenly. "...You'll have to go back to Malfoy Manor, won't you? How is Lucius Malfoy going to reconcile what you experienced in the graveyard?"

 

"Professor Snape says he's going to try to convince me that I was Confunded by Barty Crouch and that none of it happened. Like I would ever believe that I didn't really see Lucius kiss my father's robes." Harry gave a shudder of disgust. "Yeah, it weirded me out, too. What kind of grown men prostrate themselves like that? Just bend over and let him have at it." 

 

The Weasleys laughed, but Hermione didn't seem to think it was funny. Harry scoffed. "You notice that they were all wizards? What does Voldemort have against witches?"

 

"Yeah! The only two witches ever in his inner circle are both in Azkaban and one of 'em had to be Imperius'ed to be anywhere near him!"

 

The rest of the train ride was spent playing cards and Callie snuggling up to Fred and pretending that things were going to be okay. Fred and George explained to Harry, Hermione and Ron why they'd been trying to get alone time with Ludo Bagman all year and explained that they were out their winnings and out the gold they had put down with the bet because Ludo had lost it all betting with goblins. Callie had been right about why Bagman was trying to get Harry to win, but the goblins said it didn't count that Harry won because all three of the Hogwarts champions had won and that's not what Bagman had bet.

 

Callie found herself wishing that the train ride would never end as she and Fred handed their cards over and told George not to deal them into the next game. "Are you going to write me?" Fred asked, quietly.

 

"Maybe. I know how you get when I don't write you during summer holidays." she joked, before shrugging. "But it might be dangerous. I've got to keep myself in hiding once I get out of Wiltshire. And I left Athena back at school."

 

"Well, then you better give us a real kiss before you disappear." Fred suggested.

 

Callie, who had only shared true snogs with Lucas Avery the Death Eater's son, had been too caught off guard by the first tongue kiss she'd shared with the not-so-Frenchman to be nervous about it, but she was definitely nervous now. Her only friends were in close proximity, two of her boyfriend's brothers among their number, and they had most definitely heard Fred just suggest a real kiss. They were watching out of the corner of their eyes and she was instantly aware of it.

 

She turned to him and pulled his head down to kiss him, and then it didn't matter, anymore. Snogging Fred was right, no matter who was watching. "Do they not need to breathe?" Ron asked after a few minutes.

 

Callie pulled back and smiled as she moved to embrace Fred instead. She leaned her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around him. "That was... incredible." Fred whispered. He sounded astonished. 

 

"Yeah. We'll have to do that again."

 

"A lot. We'll have to do that a lot." said Fred, eagerly.

 

"Great. Now we're gonna hear all summer about how he misses you." George groaned.

 

"You're just jealous." Callie and Fred said, simultaneously.

~~

Callie didn't have a trunk to take with her off of the train. She left her trunk at Hogwarts, and Professor Snape had promised to take it to his house in Cokeworth until next school year. She kissed Fred one last time and said goodbye to Harry, Hermione, Ron and George, and walked off the train.

 

Lucius was waiting for her and Draco right on the other side of the platform. "Draco's on the train still. Might need a few countercurses to get him moving." Lucius sighed and moved forward. He moved to touch her arm, but she pulled away. "Don't touch me."

 

"Melanie, I know that you're confused about-"

 

"Even Voldemort called me 'Calidara', you dumbass. How hard is that?" She snapped. "Why don't you go get your son off the floor in the train corridor so we can get the hell out of here." 

 

As Lucius boarded the train to retrieve his son, Callie smiled at Mrs. Weasley, who smiled warily as she walked over to her. "How are you doing, Callie, dear?"

 

"Considering everything... I'm okay."

 

"I wish we could- but you'll be okay, right?"

 

"Lucius doesn't know how I got away from Little Hangleton, doesn't know how I made it back to Hogwarts. He doesn't know if I had any help or... if I really am as powerful as Lord Voldemort and Miranda Malfoy put together. He'll keep his distance... for long enough."

 

"You'll keep yourself safe, won't you?"

 

"Yeah. I will." Callie smiled as Molly Weasley hugged her and walked away to wrangle her children as Lucius stepped off of the train with a groaning Draco following behind. "I will definitely keep myself safe."

 

 


End file.
